Prabowo refers to his critics as “foreign stooges,” but foreigners are whispering in his ear.
AUTOCRATS create enemies in order to legitimize their authority. Adolf Hitler agitated the people of Germany to watch out for collusion between socialist youths and Wall Street brokers. He claimed that both of them would destroy the values of the Aryan race. Joseph Stalin in Russia fabricated the legend of Pavlik Morozov to mobilize support against hoarders. Saddam Hussein in Iraq, Muammar Qadhafi in Libya, Vladimir Putin in Russia, and Recep Tayyip Erdoan in Turkey all did similar things.
In Indonesia, Prabowo Subianto has repeatedly used the term “foreign stooges” to describe anyone criticizing his policies. These attacks are often contrasted with propaganda about how his administration is working to protect the interests of the people from being undermined by these enemies. Creating a common enemy, to borrow the term coined by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith of New York University, is a foundation of populist power, the precursor of authoritarianism.
In the end, these enemies turn out not to actually be enemies. Putin and Erdoan allied with the West for particular interests. In an interview with Tempo before the 2014 presidential election, Prabowo said he was a “product of the West” to garner support from educated middle-class voters. Now he repeatedly calls anyone who tries to stand in his way a “foreign stooge.”
Using the pretext of negotiating over import tariffs, Prabowo has expressed willingness to pay Rp17 trillion to join the Board of Peace established by United States President Donald Trump. After all, once the trade agreement was signed last week, tariffs were reduced from 32 percent to 19 percent in exchange for all of Indonesia’s natural resources. This trade agreement steers Indonesian policies in line with American interests—even more closely than the International Monetary Fund letter of intent from the end of the New Order regime. In Indonesia, Prabowo enjoys very close relationships with foreigners who whisper policies in his ear. An investigation by this magazine has discovered at least two foreign nationals who have influenced Prabowo’s economic and political policies.
The first is Karen Brooks, a former US State Department official during the Bill Clinton era, who was able to “order” Prabowo to amend regulations to accommodate exclusive tourism and environmental service businesses in the Way Kambas National Park, Lampung. Acting as a close associate of Prabowo, Brooks made flustered Forestry Ministry officials go along with her wishes. One of these was to change the core zone of Way Kambas, downgrading it to an exploitation zone, making the carbon trading and tourism ventures she wanted to conduct legal. Prabowo has also allocated Rp2 trillion in public funds to fortify Way Kambas, ostensibly to prevent endangered wildlife from straying beyond the park’s borders.
The second is Rumanian citizen Lucian Despoiu. Through his political consultancy firm, Majoritas, he came up with the idea of “gemoy” (cute or adorable) persona, a new identity for Prabowo during the 2024 presidential campaign. This political branding successfully mesmerized a segment of the Indonesian electorate, recasting Prabowo as something other than a hot-headed politician. Despoiu is also the one who planned the briefing of cabinet members at Prabowo’s residence in Hambalang, Bogor, West Java, in early October 2024. Furthermore, Despoiu is also suspected of influencing Prabowo to distribute smart television units to schools.
Many people have been taken in by the accusations about “foreign stooges.” On social media, netizens—and nobody knows if this is sincere or because they are paid—have joined in the attacks and even supported police repression of students and pro-democracy activists criticizing Prabowo’s policies. A survey by Indikator Politik—if we can still believe in the results from pollsters—reinforced this by showing that 79.9 percent of respondents are satisfied with Prabowo’s performance over the last year.
On the other hand, the government does not hesitate to defend its policies despite the fact they are clearly disadvantageous to the people. It is claimed that the free nutritious meal program, for example, has created a million jobs, but nobody knows where this figure has come from. Meanwhile, the establishment of red-and-white cooperatives has been forced through even though it contradicts the principle of cooperatives that prioritizes grassroots aspirations. Funding for the red-and-white cooperative has been taken from village funds, a program of direct central government funding to villages, even though this was against the law. Those who criticized these two programs are accused of not siding with the people and of being foreign stooges.
On the face of it, it is possible that Prabowo’s propaganda has managed to tranquilize the public. In his hands, power is built through populism, conflict through the creation of a common enemy, and iron fist politics using the army and the police. History records that this type of leadership only leads to bogus success—something that is eventually redeemed through a pitiful downfall.
