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View all search resultsGibran’s fall, Prabowo’s power reconfiguration?
The court battle over Gibran isn't about a missing diploma: It’s an opening shot in the cutthroat struggle to reshape Indonesia’s oligarchic power under Prabowo.
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Ground visit: Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka (third from right), accompanied by National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) head Suharyanto (right) and Solok Regent John Pandu (second right), inspects public facilities and infrastructure affected by flash floods in Arosuka, Solok, West Sumatra, on Sept. 25, 2026. (Antara/Fitra Yogi)
T
he challenge over Gibran Rakabuming Raka’s legitimacy as vice president has landed squarely at the Constitutional Court. The petitioners are asking the bench to invalidate Gibran’s nomination, annul his inauguration and order the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) to pick a replacement. What makes the motion interesting isn't just that it exists, but how far it goes.
Treating this simply as legal squabbling over educational credentials misses the point. Talk of impeachment is rarely just about jurisprudence: It is a live political lever.
In Jakarta’s current climate, it offers rival factions immediate bargaining power against the presidency, challenges former president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s political footprint and keeps a potent wild card on the table ahead of the 2029 race, especially if the alliance between President Prabowo Subianto and Gibran fractures.
Stripped down, the dispute isn't about diplomas. It is an opening salvo in a sweeping reordering of power. Every incoming regime must construct its own operational base. No administration serious about political autonomy wants to spend five years hostage to the bureaucratic networks, personal loyalties and patronage systems left behind by its predecessor.
Right now, however, Prabowo’s administration is grappling with institutional drift. When ministers and loyalists from the Jokowi era were absorbed into the Red and White Cabinet, overlapping allegiances came with them. Cracks are showing across the apparatus.
Friction between the police and military in the graft case involving a former assistant attorney general for special crimes, disputes between state entities Agrinas and Danantara over managing the rural cooperatives program and the series of cabinet reshuffles that saw Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa’s dismissal as finance minister all point in the same direction.
Before his removal, Purbaya had clashed with asset management agency Danantara over Whoosh high-speed rail debt and its resistance to transferring roughly Rp 120 trillion (US$6.7 billion) in dividends to state coffers. He also pushed back on regional budget demands from regency leaders and carried out a sweeping internal overhaul of the Finance Ministry.
