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Sukarno, Soeharto ‘would have endorsed me’, Prabowo says
Speaking at a national meeting of the National Mandate Party (PAN) on Thursday night, Prabowo said all past presidents would have backed some of his major policy programs, especially his plans for the country to achieve self-reliance.
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Prabowo Subianto speaks at his house in Jakarta on April 17, 2024. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
P
resident-elect Prabowo Subianto has claimed that all the past leaders of Indonesia, including some long-deceased presidents, would have endorsed him in the February presidential election.
Speaking at a national meeting of the National Mandate Party (PAN) on Thursday night, Prabowo said all past presidents would have backed some of his major policy programs, especially his plans for the country to achieve self-reliance.
"One party has claimed ownership of Sukarno, and I say no, he belongs to us all. And I get the feeling that he would have endorsed me. Whatever he aspired to – that Indonesia should stand on its own feet, that Indonesia should not be the life blood of other nations – that's what I have been fighting for," Prabowo said, alluding to the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).
The current Defense Minister also claimed that the country's second president, Soeharto, and fifth president, Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, with whom Prabowo claimed to have had a good relationship, would also have backed his presidential run.
"I am convinced that, up above, [Gus Dur] supports me, because he had repeatedly given his endorsement. I think Pak Harto also has the same position," said Prabowo with a chuckle.
In a number of public statements, Prabowo has claimed to have had a close relationship with the late Gus Dur, saying he had long served as a "masseur" to the Muslim cleric, who later served as the country's president from 1999 to 2001.
Meanwhile, Prabowo became Soeharto’s son-in-law when he married the general's daughter Siti Hediati "Titiek" Hariadi in 1983. The couple separated in the late 1990s.
