April 27, 2023
JAKARTA – Gerindra Party chairman Prabowo Subianto on Tuesday held a series of meetings with former senior Indonesian Military (TNI) generals, including former defense minister Wiranto and former head of the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) AM Hendropriyono.
On Tuesday afternoon, Prabowo held a meeting with Wiranto at the latter’s private residence in South Jakarta.
Emerging from the private meeting, Wiranto gave his endorsement of Prabowo’s plan to run in the 2024 presidential election, saying that he was a well-qualified candidate for the job.
“As a member of the government, Pak Prabowo knows well about continuity of the development programs, what needs to be added or improved on,” Wiranto told reporters.
Prabowo and Wiranto’s relationship goes all the way back to when the former was chief of the Army’s Special Intelligence Forces (Kopassus) in the late 1990s. Wiranto was then TNI chief when Prabowo launched a special operation to arrest a number of pro-democracy activists in the final moments of the New Order regime.
Prior to his meeting with Wiranto, Prabowo spend his afternoon at the private residence of former BIN chief Hendropriyono, who was also his senior in Kopassus.
Prabowo said that he visited Hendropriyono to celebrate Idul Fitri and reminisce on their days as soldiers.
Earlier in the morning, Prabowo also paid former vice president Try Sutrisno and former TNI chief Widodo AS a visit at their private residences.
Soon after the announcement from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) to nominate Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo, Prabowo jetted off to Surakarta, Central Java, over the weekend to hold a private meeting and celebrate the Idul Fitri holiday with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.