Who is Prabowo? The man behind Indonesia’s big promises - Asia Specific podcast, BBC World Service

It’s a grand promise by Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto - a free meal every day for 83 million school children and pregnant women.

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His capacity to keep that promise will define the legacy of the country’s new leader who pledged to end malnutrition on his presidential campaign trail in 2024. But already there are hints that the programme is breaking apart at the seams, with more than 4000 children having collapsed from food poisoning since January 2025 from the free lunch.

What does the success or failure of this ambitious programme say about the politics of Indonesia’s president, and how does it lay bare the problems within South East Asia’s biggest economy?

To find out, we talk to the BBC's South East Asia correspondent Jonathan Head, who has spent years in Indonesia reporting on the country. We also speak to Bloomberg Opinion’s Asia columnist Karishma Vaswani, who grew up in Indonesia and was the correspondent and editor there for the BBC from 2009 to 2015.

00:00 - Coming up
00:23 - Introduction
01:40 - How Karishma Vaswani got her first journalism job in Jakarta working for Jonathan Head
03:50 - When did the world start taking notice of Indonesia?
04:35 - Why Indonesia, the biggest economy in South East Asia, constantly punches below its weight
06:30 - The history and legacy of Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto
08:30 - How Prabowo Subianto’s determination to become Indonesia’s president paid off
09:00 - The complete reinvention of Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto
09:51 - Why is President Prabowo Subianto appealing to young Indonesians?
10:49 - Is the popularity of Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto waning?
11:45 - The genesis of President Prabowo’s high cost free lunch programme
13:01 - The challenges in executing President Prabowo Subianto’s ambitious free lunch programme
14:53 - How President Prabowo Subianto’s leadership style differs from Indonesia’s former president Joko Widodo
16:51 - How the country reacted when Prabowo named Indonesia’s former president and dictator Suharto a ‘national hero’
18:47 - How politics in Indonesia works
20:08 - Will Indonesia ever be able to punch above its weight?

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Presenter: Mariko Oi
Producer and Video journalist: Derek Cai
Camera: Muhammad Firdaus Bin Mohd Ansary, Rosalehin Bin Rosli, Muhammad Fahmi Bin Jamal
Editor: Bill Birtles

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