Some Indonesian Chinese wary of Prabowo Subianto amid painful memories of 1998 riots

While some Chinese-Indonesians said they had opposed Prabowo on this ground, others, especially those from younger generations, were willing to look past the country’s dark history and hope that its political and economic stability would continue.

Suwondo, who wished to be identified by his first name only and is a Chinese Indonesian resident of Depok, a satellite city of Jakarta, said he voted against Prabowo in the 2014, 2019 and last week’s elections.

“Back then [in 2014 and 2019], we voted for Jokowi to prevent Prabowo from winning,” said Suwondo.

The 65-year-old retiree said many Chinese Indonesians suspected that the former general played a key role in the May 1998 riots, which occurred at the height of the Asian Financial Crisis and led to the resignation of the dictator Suharto, who was Prabowo’s father-in-law at the time.

After his re-election in 2019, Widodo surprised many by inviting his former rival to join his cabinet as defence minister. Their political alliance grew stronger after Widodo’s eldest son Gibran Rakabuming Raka became the former general’s vice presidential running mate in October.

Many believe Widodo’s enormous popularity and his tacit endorsement of Prabowo and Gibran’s ticket were crucial to the pair’s electoral victory.

“So it’s a great irony that Prabowo is going to be president, thanks to the man we elected to prevent him from becoming one in the first place,” said Suwondo.

Chinese Indonesians make up somewhere between three and five per cent of Indonesia’s population of 278 million. No data has been released breaking down the voter demographics of the February 14 election. According to an exit poll conducted by the newspaper Kompas, there was a significant variance in voting preferences among