
Prabowo sends Gerindra officials to meet Megawati, deliver confidential message
The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairwoman Megawati Sukarnoputri (left) talks with House Speaker Puan Maharani of the PDI-P and Deputy House Speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad of Gerindra Party at her residence in Menteng, Central Jakarta, in this undated photo. - Instagram/@sufmi_dasco via The Jakarta Post/ANN
JAKARTA: Officials from President Prabowo Subianto's Gerindra Party have revealed that they met with Megawati Sukarnoputri—the matriarch of the de facto opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P)—at her private residence in Menteng, Central Jakarta, to deliver a confidential message from the President.
Gerindra executive chairman and House Deputy Speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad shared the news on his Instagram account on Thursday (June 5), saying the delegation 'received guidance and input for the good of the nation under the leadership of Pak Prabowo' during the visit a few days earlier.
When asked by reporters about whether the meeting discussed the possibility of the PDI-P joining Prabowo's big-tent Onward Indonesia Coalition (KIM), Dasco said no, but acknowledged that the topic often comes up during interactions between the two parties.
He also stopped short of revealing the agenda discussed during the meeting with Megawati, saying it involved a confidential message from the President.
Separately, State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi, who accompanied Dasco to Megawati's residence, said the country's fifth president had reminded him to 'stay healthy and take care of Prabowo,' as quoted by Antara.
Political observer Kunto Adi from Padjadjaran University suggested the visit was likely linked to the PDI-P's upcoming congress, where the party is expected to announce its political stance regarding Prabowo's administration.
'It is very possible that [the increasingly intense relationship between Prabowo and Megawati] signals that the PDI-P will soon join Prabowo's cabinet,' he said, as reported by Kompas.
Prabowo and Megawati made a rare joint appearance on Monday to celebrate the birth of the country's founding ideology Pancasila. In the lead-up to the ceremony, Prabowo personally welcomed Megawati and exchanged jokes and pleasantries. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Star
3 hours ago
- The Star
Prabowo sends Gerindra officials to meet Megawati, deliver confidential message
The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairwoman Megawati Sukarnoputri (left) talks with House Speaker Puan Maharani of the PDI-P and Deputy House Speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad of Gerindra Party at her residence in Menteng, Central Jakarta, in this undated photo. - Instagram/@sufmi_dasco via The Jakarta Post/ANN JAKARTA: Officials from President Prabowo Subianto's Gerindra Party have revealed that they met with Megawati Sukarnoputri—the matriarch of the de facto opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P)—at her private residence in Menteng, Central Jakarta, to deliver a confidential message from the President. Gerindra executive chairman and House Deputy Speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad shared the news on his Instagram account on Thursday (June 5), saying the delegation 'received guidance and input for the good of the nation under the leadership of Pak Prabowo' during the visit a few days earlier. When asked by reporters about whether the meeting discussed the possibility of the PDI-P joining Prabowo's big-tent Onward Indonesia Coalition (KIM), Dasco said no, but acknowledged that the topic often comes up during interactions between the two parties. He also stopped short of revealing the agenda discussed during the meeting with Megawati, saying it involved a confidential message from the President. Separately, State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi, who accompanied Dasco to Megawati's residence, said the country's fifth president had reminded him to 'stay healthy and take care of Prabowo,' as quoted by Antara. Political observer Kunto Adi from Padjadjaran University suggested the visit was likely linked to the PDI-P's upcoming congress, where the party is expected to announce its political stance regarding Prabowo's administration. 'It is very possible that [the increasingly intense relationship between Prabowo and Megawati] signals that the PDI-P will soon join Prabowo's cabinet,' he said, as reported by Kompas. Prabowo and Megawati made a rare joint appearance on Monday to celebrate the birth of the country's founding ideology Pancasila. In the lead-up to the ceremony, Prabowo personally welcomed Megawati and exchanged jokes and pleasantries. - The Jakarta Post/ANN


The Star
8 hours ago
- The Star
Tech Bro had to go
ELON Musk came to Washington with a chain saw and left with a black eye. Shrinking government is hard, particularly when you do it callously and carelessly – and apparently on hallucinogens. As with President Donald Trump's tariffs, the Department of Government Efficiency has created more volatility than value. A guy who went bankrupt six times doesn't really care about spending. And Trump certainly didn't want to see the headline, 'Trump Cuts Social Security.' He just wanted to get revenge on 'the bureaucracy' by deputising Musk to force out a lot of federal employees and give the impression that they were cutting all the waste. As always with Trump, the former reality star, the impression matters more than the reality, especially the reality of his own sins. This past week, Trump tried to recast the very nature of crime. As The New York Times ' Glenn Thrush wrote: 'President Trump is employing the vast power of his office to redefine criminality to suit his needs – using pardons to inoculate criminals he happens to like, downplaying corruption and fraud as crimes, and seeking to stigmatise political opponents by labelling them criminals.' It is sickening that the US Justice Department is considering settling a wrongful-death lawsuit by giving US$5mil to the family of Ashli Babbitt – who was shot on Jan 6, 2021, by a Capitol police officer when she ignored his warnings and tried to climb through a smashed window into the Speaker's Lobby in the Capitol. If Babbitt was trying to help Trump claw back a 'stolen' election by breaking into the Capitol, then breaking into the Capitol must be a good thing to do, and any police officer who tried to stop her and protect lawmakers cowering under desks must be in the wrong. To abet Trump's fake reality, the craven House Republicans refused to put up a plaque honouring the police officers and others who defended the Capitol that awful day. I take it personally because my dad spent 20 years as a police inspector in Washington in charge of Senate security. He would run to the House whenever there was trouble. So if on Jan 6 Mike Dowd had been preventing insurrectionists from assaulting lawmakers, he would now be, in Trump's eyes, not a hero deserving of a plaque, but a blackguard who was thwarting 'patriots,' as Trump calls the rioters he pardoned. It is a disturbing bizarro world. Trump was rewriting reality again last Friday afternoon as one of the most flamboyant, destructive bromances in government history petered out in the Oval Office. It had peaked last winter when Musk posted on social platform X, 'I love @realDonaldTrump as much as a straight man can love another man,' and again when Trump tried to reciprocate by hawking Teslas in the White House driveway. But on May 30, even these grand master salesmen couldn't sell the spin that Elon had 'delivered a colossal change.' Musk has acknowledged recently that his dream of cutting US$1 trillion had been a fantasy. He said changing Washington was 'an uphill battle' and complained that Trump's 'big, beautiful' budget bill, which could add over US$3 trillion in debt, undercut his DOGE attempts to save money. As Trump said, Musk got a lot of 'the slings and the arrows.' His approval rating cratered and violence has been directed toward Tesla, a brand once loved by liberals and in China, which is now tarnished. Musk cut off a reporter who tried to ask about a Times article asserting that he was a habitual user of ketamine and a dabbler in ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms even after Trump had given him enormous control over the government. That could explain the chain saw-wielding, the jumping up and down onstage, the manic baby-making and crusading for more spreading of sperm by smart people, and the ominous Nazi-style salutes. When a reporter asked Musk why he had a black eye, he joked about the viral video of Brigitte Macron shoving her husband's face. Then he explained that while 'horsing around' with his five-year-old, X, he suggested the child punch him in the face, 'and he did.' The president and the Tony Stark prototype tried to convey the idea that they would remain tight, even though Musk would no longer be getting into angry altercations with Scott Bessent outside the Oval, sleeping on the floor of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and hanging around Mar-a-Lago. (Trump wants the US$100mil Musk has pledged for his political operation.) Musk, wearing a black 'DOGE' cap and black 'Dogefather' T-shirt, had looked around the Oval on his last day in the administration, which Trump has tarted up to look like a Vegas gift shop, and gushed that it 'finally has the majesty that it deserves, thanks to the president.' Trump gave Musk a golden ceremonial White House key, the kind of thing small-town mayors give out, and proclaimed: 'Elon's really not leaving. He's going to be back and forth, I think.' Trump said that the father of (at least) 14 would never desert DOGE completely because 'It's his baby.' Musk brought the Silicon Valley mantra 'Move fast and break things' to Washington. But the main thing he broke was his own reputation. — ©2025 The New York Times Company This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

The Star
a day ago
- The Star
History revisited – or rewritten?
The government's plan to release new history books has sparked concerns that some of the country's darkest chapters could be recast to show President Prabowo Subianto and late authoritarian ruler Suharto in a favourable light. The 10-volume series would have an Indonesia-centric narrative and aims 'to reinvent the Indonesian identity,' Culture Minister Fadli Zon said in an interview. Several historians said the commissioning of the books presents an opportunity for historical revisionism at a time when younger generations – largely responsible for Prabowo's resounding election victory last year – have little or no memory of Suharto's 1966-1998 New Order era. Prabowo openly praises Suharto, who was once his father-in-law, and is increasingly turning to the military to carry out his government's vision. Prabowo has also been accused of rights abuses while in the military, including involvement in the kidnapping of student activists during riots in 1998 – allegations he has repeatedly denied and which Fadli said had been debunked. Potential propaganda? Fadli says he has believed 'for a long time that Suharto should be considered a national hero'. — Reuters Asvi Warman Adam, a leading historian who used to work at the National Research and Innovation Agency, said he was calling on academics to lobby lawmakers to scrutinise what he said would be 'propaganda'. 'I suspect there is an intention to legitimise the ruling regime ... such as by excluding gross human rights violations in 1998 linked to Prabowo,' he said, adding that he expected the government would soon confer the posthumous title of 'National Hero' on Suharto. Asked about concerns by some analysts and historians that the books could be used as propaganda, be politicised and omit human rights abuses that have been linked to Prabowo and Suharto, Fadli said: 'History will be written correctly.' The president's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new books. Prabowo has previously said that former activists were his supporters. No editorial involvement Fadli, who has authored a book that defended Prabowo's actions as a special forces commander during Suharto's 32-year rule, added that neither he nor Prabowo would be involved in the editorial process. The books, which Fadli said were commissioned last year, will chronicle the history of humankind in Indonesia from homo erectus to Dutch colonisation to Prabowo's election. In his defence: Highlighting economic achievements in the early presidency of Suharto, including slashing poverty.— Reuters They will be authored and edited by about 100 historians and Fadli says he wants them ready by Aug 17, Indonesia's Independence Day. Mass killings in focus Made Supriatma, a visiting fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, said he believes the government will use the same playbook as Suharto, who released a six-volume book series in 1975 titled The National History of Indonesia that he said glorified the military and was fraught with inaccuracies. 'Prabowo's history within this republic is not good, to be frank ... Do they dare to write that?' Jajat Burhanuddin, a historian involved in the project, said so far there has been no state intervention. The 1998 kidnappings and torture of student activists would be included, he said, although he declined to say whether Prabowo would be mentioned in those accounts. Another key focus for historians will be how the books portray the mass killings of communists and sympathisers in 1965 and 1966, led in part by the military. Some historians estimate more than half a million people were killed. No investigation has been conducted into the killings, which were in response to the murder of generals by the communist party in an abortive coup. Suharto rose to power in the aftermath and remained president until 1998, when he stepped down during a popular uprising and economic crisis after allegations of corruption and nepotism. The 1965 events continue to be debated in Indonesia. Fadli said the new books would not take a deeper look into the massacres. Fadli, who was among the student activists who demonstrated against Suharto, now speaks highly of the former ruler, highlighting economic achievements in his early presidency, including slashing poverty and tackling inflation. 'My opinion has always been for a long time that Suharto should be considered a national hero,' he said. — Reuters