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senior minister has stated that the country did not need a strongman president because such a person would tend to prioritize his own interests ahead of people’s needs.

Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto added that a dominating leader would see his economic and political policies become isolated from the mainstream of public opinion.

“And what is worse, his policies and aspirations will be irrelevant to the real needs and aspirations of the people,” Djoko said during a public lecture at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore on Monday.

He told the Singaporean officials, politicians, academics and businesspeople attending the lecture that Indonesia needed an effective government, not a strongman leader.

In his lecture, Djoko, who is himself a retired Air Force general, dismissed a number of surveys that predicted that people with military backgrounds would be strong contenders in the 2014 presidential election.

Various surveys throughout the year have stated that former commander of the Army’s Special Forces (Kopassus), Lt. Gen. (ret.) Prabowo Subianto, and former Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. (ret.) Wiranto would attract a significant number of votes. Djoko has himself been cited by pollsters throughout the year.

However, Djoko said, “Indonesia must continue to look to the future and not be tempted to look back to the past.”

Prabowo and Wiranto are examples of figures from the past, who happen to be popularly known as “strongmen” and who have contested previous presidential elections.

Prabowo, who has confirmed his candidacy via his Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), is expected to be the most popular candidate. However, his presidential ambitions have been met with resistance by rival political parties that consider him too “dangerous”.

Prabowo’s critics remark that his poor human rights record may be an insurmountable obstacle for his presidential ambitions. Prabowo, who is the ex-husband of one of former president Soeharto’s daughters, is alleged to have been involved in a number of forced abductions of students, which took place during the New Order era.

Meanwhile, Wiranto is also considered to have a poor human rights record for his role during Indonesia’s occupation of East Timor, now Timor Leste.

“Hence, it is wrong to think that Indonesia needs this kind of person to lead,” Djoko said.