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I believe in democracy, press freedom: Prabowo
In a speech during an Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI) event, vice presidential candidate Prabowo said that no one should doubt his commitment to democracy as he has been an active participant of the democratic system in the past two decades.
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Presidential candidate and Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto speaks on Dec. 12, 2023, during the first presidential election debate at the General Elections Commission (KPU) office in Jakarta. (AFP/Yasuyoshi Chiba)
Defense Minister and 2024 presidential election frontrunner Prabowo Subianto has pledged that he would preserve the country's democracy and make efforts to protect press freedom, if elected.
In a speech during an event organized by the Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI), the country's oldest journalist organization, Prabowo said that no one should doubt his commitment to democracy as he has been an active participant of the democratic system in the past two decades.
"I am a believer in democracy, and I have shown my commitment to democracy," Prabowo said, adding that he showed that commitment by competing in four presidential elections between 2009 and 2024.
Prabowo first ran as vice president in the 2009 presidential election alongside the Indonesian Democratic Party chairperson Megawati Soekarnoputri before launching his own presidential bid in 2014, running against then Jakarta governor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.
He ran for president again in 2019 against Jokowi but lost after a bitterly contested race which split the country into two opposing camps.
In this year's presidential election, President Jokowi has thrown in his lot with Prabowo and allowed his son Surakarta mayor Gibran Rakabuming Raka to serve as his running mate.
In his speech at the PWI headquarters on Thursday, Prabowo also praised the role of the press as a counterweight against government policies.
"Press freedom, checks and balances, they are there to control those in power," Prabowo said.
The Gerindra Party chairman also said that although some criticism from the press was harsh, it was necessary to keep the government accountable.
"A dynamic freedom of the press, which sometimes goes too far and makes us angry when we read it, is to control us [the government], to tell us that something is wrong with our country," Prabowo said.
Prabowo has a record of a confrontational approach toward the media.
In recent weeks, a video of Prabowo launching a tirade against the press, in which he says that he keeps tabs on all negative coverage of him, has made the rounds on the internet and on social media, raising concerns of a media clampdown if he is elected president this year.
