Prabowo Subianto Djojohadikusumo (modern orthography: Joyohadikusumo; born 17 October 1951) is an Indonesian politician, businessman, and retired army general serving as the eighth president of Indonesia since 2024.

Prabowo Subianto graduated from the Indonesian Military Academy (Akademi Militer Nasional) in 1970 and primarily served in the Special Forces (Kopassus) until he was appointed to lead the Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) in 1998.

[33] Jose Manuel Tesoro, writing for Asiaweek in 2000, contacted four separate non-governmental organizations including TAPOL in London; Solidamor in Jakarta; the HAK Foundation, headquartered in Dili; and the East Timor Action Network (ETAN) in New York, and they could not provide any eyewitness reports, transcripts of intercepted communications, leaked papers, or anything that could substantiate Prabowo's involvement.

[40] Less than three months after his appointment as head of Kostrad, on the first day of the May 1998 riots, Prabowo Subianto urged the commander of the Indonesian National Armed Forces (ABRI), General Wiranto, to let him bring his Strategic Reserve units from outside Jakarta into the city to help restore order.

[45] In one testimony from Andi Arief, a former detainee told of being tortured for days in an unidentified location, allegedly a military camp where most of their time was spent blindfolded, while being forced to answer repeated questions, mainly concerning their political activities.

[53] In its final report, the fact-finding team suspected that, on the night of 14 May, Prabowo Subianto met with several Armed Forces and prominent civilian figures at the Kostrad headquarters to discuss organization of the violence.

[54] However, this was later refuted by several people who attended the meeting, including prominent human rights lawyer Adnan Buyung Nasution and Joint Fact-Finding Team member, Bambang Widjojanto.

[65] Following an ABRI investigation in August 1998, the Dewan Kehormatan Perwira (Officers Council of Honor) found Prabowo guilty of "misinterpreting orders" in the kidnapping of nine anti-Suharto activists in 1998.

"[66] Human rights groups have long questioned Prabowo's eligibility to run for president, noting that he was discharged from the Army in August 1998[a] for "misinterpreting orders" in the abduction of the democracy activists.

[95] The Indonesian Advocacy Service for Justice and Peace (Padma) in the East Nusa Tenggara region assessed that Prabowo played a major role in the release of Wilfrida Soik from the death penalty at the Kota Bahru Court, Kelantan, Malaysia.

[98] As a lieutenant colonel, Prabowo Subianto invited Abdurrahman Wahid to his battalion headquarters in 1992 and warned him to stick to religion and to stay out of politics, or face unspecified actions if he continued to oppose the president.

[99] He later warned the intellectual Nurcholish Madjid (Cak Nur) to resign from the KIPP, the election monitoring unit set up by Goenawan Mohamad, which armed forces commander Feisal Tanjung had denounced as "obviously unconstitutional.

Prabowo and Megawati signed the Batu Tulis Agreement, which stated that:[104] The pair, referred to colloquially by the Indonesian media as Mega–Pro, earned 27% of the vote and lost to Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his running mate, economist Boediono.

[116] On 22 July 2014, the day that the KPU was due to announce its official tally, Prabowo Subianto withdrew from the race after having insisted on his victory since the initial quick counts were released, although the majority showed Jokowi ahead.

He attributed this withdrawal to Indonesia "failing in its duty to democracy" because of "massive cheating that is structured and systematic,"[117] and stated that he and Hatta "exercise our constitutional right to reject the presidential election and declare it unconstitutional".

[126] In April 2018, John McBeth reported Maritime Coordinating Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan had held a series of meetings with Prabowo Subianto, culminating in the proposal of a joint Jokowi-Prabowo ticket for the 2019 election.

For the Indonesian Navy, Prabowo signed contracts for newer surface combatants such as Arrowhead 140 and FREMM[159][160] while exploring possible local production on the Scorpene class submarines under PAL Indonesia.

[171] Following an incident in late 2019 where Chinese vessels violated the Indonesian EEZ off the Natuna Islands, Prabowo Subianto called for a cautious response, referring to China as a "friendly nation".

[174] When asked about the situation on the South China Sea in a session at IISS Shangri-La Dialogue on 14 June 2022, Prabowo answered that Indonesia respects the interest of all countries that are involved in the region.

[175] In reaction to the formation of AUKUS and Australian plans to acquire nuclear submarines, Prabowo thinks that the alliance is made on basis of defense and it was beneath the sovereign rights of Australia, UK, and USA.

[179] In October 2020, Prabowo Subianto visited the United States despite his previous ban from entering the country, in his capacity as Minister of Defense after being invited by his US counterpart Mark Esper and a visa was issued for him.

[185] However, his plan was well received by China, with former Chinese ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai expressing appreciation for Prabowo's efforts while criticizing the West for mismanaging their own security situation.

[192] During the Israel-Hamas conflict in 2023, Prabowo Subianto called out his disappointment with the Western countries who seemed silent when they saw civilians and children becoming victims of war and blasted the west for a perceived double standards on human rights.

5 billion of his personal wealth to the Palestinian people[193] and joined President Jokowi, Secretary of State Pratikno, Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi and Ambassador to Indonesia from Palestine Zuhair Al Shun in sending off 51.5 tonnes of aid delivered by the Indonesian Air Force.

[194] He had also communicated with the Egyptian defense minister Mohamed Ahmad Zaki to allow the passage of the Indonesian Navy hospital ship KRI dr. Radjiman Wedyodiningrat to dock near El Arish, Sinai in order to deliver further aid for Palestine.

[196] His statement is further backed by Commander of the Indonesian National Armed Forces Agus Subiyanto, stating the TNI can deploy 1394 personnels for peacekeeping missions in Gaza and has approached Singapore and Australia who express their interest in joining Indonesia for a joint operation.

[202] On 25 March 2022, Jokowi and Prabowo expanded the campus by opening a branch outside Sentul [id], West Java, namely Ben Mboi Polytechnic, in Belu, East Nusa Tenggara.

[213][214] Social media users especially in Twitter began to actively campaign to stop paying taxes as a form of protest against the government's policy while labour unions threatens a massive strike if the increase goes through.

[236] However, Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya clarified that Erdogan had already apologized before the conference session started and had requested Prabowo to switch turns with him so that he can leave early to attend a bilateral meeting with another leader.

According to Kivlan Zen, rumors persisted that Moerdani would use his office of commander of the Indonesian National Armed Forces to gain support from the ABRI faction to run as vice president to Suharto.