The White House said it looked forward to working with the incoming Indonesian government but stopped short of congratulating Prabowo Subianto on his apparent victory in last month’s Indonesian presidential election.
“We congratulate the people of Indonesia on their successful election. The president looks forward to early engagement with the new administration and strengthening cooperation in the strategic partnership we have established,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby responded at a White House press briefing on Tuesday said in response to a question from Voice of America.
Kirby said the government was “paying close attention to the ongoing vote count,” which showed Prabowo was far ahead. In the February 14 election, with nearly 90% of the votes counted, Prabowo received nearly 59% of more than 150 million votes cast.
“We have worked well with him since he became defense secretary and we look forward to continuing that relationship if he is, in fact, ultimately elected,” Kirby said.
The official results will not be announced until late March, but Prabowo has already been declared the winner, and several countries, including China, Australia, and the United Kingdom, have expressed congratulations.
Suspected of human rights violations
Prabowo, currently Indonesia’s defense minister, has a long record of accusations of human rights abuses, including kidnapping and torturing activists during the 1998 ouster of his then-father-in-law, former President Suharto, who had ruled Indonesia for 32 years.
Prabowo’s victory was widely attributed to the support of outgoing President Joko Widodo, who last week awarded Prabowo the honorary four-star rank of general. The president’s son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, is Prabowo’s running mate, fueling accusations of nepotism.
“Prabowo’s election not only sets a bad precedent for prosecuting state crimes committed by the previous government,” said Gufron Mabruri, executive director of Imparsial, an Indonesian human rights group. “It will also weaken future enforcement of human rights.”
Until 2020, Prabowo was banned from entering the United States due to alleged human rights violations, but he has since been invited by the Trump and Biden administrations to visit the United States as defense secretary.
Asked about potential democratic backsliding in Indonesia, Kirby said the government would “never abandon our concerns about the need for human rights, civil rights and all the values of a democratic system” and that President Joe Biden would “absolutely not shy away from that” “About expressing such concerns.
As the United States and China compete for regional influence, Prabowo aims to continue Indonesia’s non-aligned foreign policy, which has allowed Jakarta to receive significant investment from Beijing while maintaining security ties with Washington.
Andreka Natalegawa, an associate fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that in Washington, concerns about Indonesia being too close to Beijing provide a geostrategic context for U.S.-Indonesia relations.
“At the same time, the fact that the U.S.-Indonesia partnership is strong and solid also reinforces these broader geopolitical factors,” Natalegawa told VOA, adding that given the relationship with the outgoing Continuity of government in Indonesia, Washington should be willing to work with the incoming administration.
There have been sporadic protests in Jakarta alleging election interference, but official results are expected to declare Prabowo as the country’s next leader in the coming weeks.
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