The inauguration last month of former military general Prabowo Subianto as Indonesia’s new leader caps “a remarkable turnaround” in his fortunes, says the Financial Times. An erstwhile commander of the country’s “feared” special forces, Prabowo was “once banned from the US for the alleged kidnapping of democracy activists”, which he denies.
Indeed, his chief leitmotif these days is social liberalism. Prabowo’s “Red and White” cabinet swept to power on a ticket of offering free school lunches, which alone is expected to cost $28 billion. He also aims to raise economic growth to 8% – fuelled by a big rise in debt.
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The “highly respected” former World Bank director has been featured on Forbes’ rankings of the world’s most powerful women – a rare feat given the low profile of Indonesian politicians on the world stage. She is, says the South China Morning Post, nothing less than “the face of the Indonesian economy”. During Sri Mulyani’s first stint as finance minister in 2005, foreign investment nearly doubled within a year as she took on corruption and mismanagement so effectively – starting with her own department. “If you are corrupt, you are going to have to deal with me. I am not going to let you work here and I will put you in prison,” she told staff.
Can Sri Mulyani Indrawati make it to the top?
Sri Mulyani’s anti-corruption drive proved a double-edged sword for her personally and “didn’t win many friends”, noted The Wall Street Journal in 2010. In particular, she came up against the vested interests of Indonesia’s powerful Bakrie family, who were rumoured to have forced her decision to resign in 2009. A new role as a World Bank managing director beckoned before she was lured back to the finance ministry in 2016 by former president Joko Widodo.
Many, including The Jakarta Post, have speculated that Sri Mulyani could, and should, go all the way to the top, notes the Australian Lowy Institute – even if her technocratic style, “more familiar to the halls of Brussels”, is at odds with Indonesia’s vibrant, flamboyant democracy. For the moment, she is ruling it out. Time will tell.
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