Thread by @olliekarp

In today's #dailysoup, I'll introduce an Indonesian former military general, politician, and Soeharto's son-in-law, Prabowo Subianto (@prabowo).

He's known for his role during the Fall of Soeharto of 1998, his controversial stints, and his recent pro-Russia one.

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Prabowo is the son-in-law of Soeharto. In May 1983, he married Soeharto's daughter, Siti Hediati Harijadi, who gave him easier access to Soeharto himself.

However, they divorced in 2001, three years after the Fall of Soeharto.

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In 2008, Prabowo established the right-wing Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra). Under this party, Prabowo unsuccessfully tried to win the presidency in Indonesia's 2009, 2014, and 2019 elections. He will run for president again in next year's elections.

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However, Prabowo was shrouded with controversies during his military x political career, including human rights violations, allegations of money laundering cuz of the Paradise Papers, and his recent pro-Russia one.

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In the late 1970s, Prabowo joined the Kopassus, in which he was involved in special operations like the ones in 1976 and the early 1990s against independence movements in East Timor when it was still a part of Indonesia. Moreover, he joined the ones in West Papua.

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During the 1976 special operation, Prabowo's forces engaged in a six-hour battle with East Timorese Fretilin independence movement forces, slaying 20 Fretilin leaders, including Nicolau Lobato, who is now East Timor's national hero. However, during succeeding...

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...special operations, Prabowo's forces engaged in human rights violations.

For example, in 1983, another East Timorese independence movement, Falintil, sparked a "levantamento uprising" against Indonesian forces at Mount Bibileo, East Timor. Then, Prabowo's forces...

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...initiated a counter-insurgency operation, in which Prabowo's forces stormed the villages at Mount Bibileo, burned down houses, rounded up x tortured civilians, and then executed them. Moreover, some of them were re-located to concentration camps.

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Meanwhile, Gen. Sintong Panjaitan, one of the perps of the 1991 Santa Cruz Massacre at East Timor, said that Prabowo may likely be the one who orchestrated the massacre to derail the careers of other Indonesian military commanders cuz he was competing for promotion.

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Prabowo faced accusations for being a possible orchestrator of the Trisakti massacre and the anti-Chinese riots during the fall of Soeharto in 1998, with investigators suggesting that motives may be somewhere like personal power and deflecting blame from Soeharto.

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In May 21, 1998, during BJ Habibie's first day of his presidency, Prabowo ordered his troops to surround his residence in a coup attempt, defying his superior's orders.

This one, together with his kidnapping of activists, led to his military ouster for "insubordination".

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Although Fadli Zon, a Prabowo ally, denied the allegations against Prabowo for tax evasion, the Paradise Papers stated that from 2001-04, Prabowo served as a director of "Nusantara Energy Resources Ltd.", a Bermuda-based offshore firm.

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When Sino-Indonesian tensions over the Natuna Sea were rising, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said bluntly that "there will be no compromise with China".

Meanwhile, Prabowo stated that "Jakarta should not be too harsh on Beijing cuz China is a friendly country",...

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...which was followed by Prabowo's visits to China in order to "meet Chinese officials to peepotalk about increasing Sino-Indonesian military cooperation".

However, in 2020, Prabowo turned down an offer for a Chinese military base in Indonesia.

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Although Prabowo visited Russia in 2020 to attend its Victory Day parade, as well as "bolster military cooperation between Indonesia and Russia", he decided to buy Austrian jets instead of Russian ones, sparking criticisms from pro-Russian Indonesians like Connie Bakrie.

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However, Prabowo did a very blatant pro-Russia peepotalking remark during an IISS conference when he peepotalked about so-called "peace plans for Russia and Ukraine".

One provision mentioned was "the creation of a Russia-Ukraine DMZ".



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https://twitter.com/Jatosint/status/1664850238572462081?s=20

So, Mr. Prabowo, what will the "demilitarised zone" in your so-called "peace plan" look like?

Will it look like the same stupid-ass "peace plan" from China proposing to make Ukraine look like the picture below?

Ermm...

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Then, Prabowo added to his so-called "peace plan proposal" that "the DMZ will be accompanied by a referendum supervised by the UN in disputed areas of Ukraine", stating that "Indonesia is ready to support the peace process".

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In reality, a "UN-supervised referendum" in the so-called "peace plan" would be useless cuz Russia would just secretly manipulate them to make it look like "99% of the people want to join Russia, while Russia is still in the UNSC.

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Contrary to Prabowo's so-called 'peace plan', The MFA has made it clear that there are no disputed territories in Ukraine and Russia, and the only way to end the war in Ukraine is through liberation of occupied territories from Russia.

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European officials said that Prabowo's "peace plan" is just a "peace of surrender", while Ukrainian officials rejected Prabowo's "peace plan" idea, saying that it will just "allow Russia to buy more time".

I wonder how will Prabowo fare in the 2024 elections.

Ermmm...

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Related entries:
Connie Bakrie - https://t.co/kmMjkzzfQQbuymeacoffee.com/olliekarp

https://twitter.com/olliekarp/status/1655998472313528321?s=20

Shoutouts:
@P_Kallioniemi, @Aaron_MatthewIL, @FMangosingINQ,
@LukeShiga, @Jatosint

This is Phase 1, Entry #76 of the #dailysoup. Feel free to read the previous entries here 👇
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