What does Australia’s legacy media think you want to know about Indonesia?

Gay druggies being flogged, scooter crashes in Kuta, landslides, volcano blows – all are legit but lightweight. Add a sinking ferry, particularly if a sporting Ozzie has been a hero rescuer.

Then her or his name will be better known in Australia than the man who runs the world’s fourth-largest nation. That’s the 17,000-island archipelago with more Muslims than any other country, and it’s just next door

In October, President Prabowo Subianto celebrates his first year in office and his 74th birthday.

In reality, he spent much of 2024 as the Prez-in-waiting, aka minister for Defence, buying military hardware from France and Turkey. Strange shopping, for the Republic faces no external threats and is too big to be badgered. But boys need toys.

Prabowo popped briefly into Australia last August to talk defence and dodge journos, but he has yet to grace us as the legit Big Man.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s first overseas stop after winning the May election was Jakarta. In a culture where gestures communicate more than statements, this says everything about power imbalances between neighbours.

Domestically, Prabowo’s 12 months have been dominated by stories of free lunches for school kids – a hugely expensive but worthy campaign promise.

The economy is doing better than Australia’s with a growth rate around 5%, though below the president’s expectation of 8%.

There’s been social unrest, riots in a regency lifting land tax by 250%. Since decentralisation this century, handling disputes have been local responsibility — 38 provinsi (equal to our states) and 416 kabupaten (regencies) — the next admin step below.

The president is unworried by parochial strife; civil administrations will be sidelined by the military and they fix things faster than the cops.

Solving problems with guns was Prabowo’s expertise for 24 years until he was cashiered in 1998 for disobeying orders, then ran away to exile in Jordan. He got back into Indonesian public life and business, backed by his billionaire younger brother Hashim Djojohadikusumo and some historical revisionism.

The shame story is little known to Gen Z – that’s almost half the population. This monster mob helped elect Prabowo with more than 58% over his two non-military rivals.

He campaigned as a cuddly grandpa who’d follow the policies of his popular civilian predecessor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and have his son Gibran as vice-president to build a legacy. A delusion: You can take the man out of the military but not the reverse.

The local media timidly tags Prabowo as an honorary general (retd); his past alleged human rights abuses (he was once banned from the US and Australia), are largely taboo.

Defence spending during Prabowo’s five-year term is tipped to double from 0.7% to 1.5% of GDP. Just before the nation’s 80th birthday (17 August) he announced a massive upgrade – six new regional army commands, 14 navy and three air force, plus an abundance of units, brigades and battalions.

Getting feet into boots won’t be a right fit as huge queues form on recruitment days, but logistic support demands will be devastatingly costly.

Education isn’t riding this rocket. The budget for higher learning, science, and technology is going down, along with money for primary and secondary schooling.

Indonesians bringing international fame to their homeland through scholarship, art, music, sport, film and theatre are fine – but soft culture can’t compete with hard images of fighter planes streaking above marching men.

Economics professor Agus Sartono from Yogya’s prestigious Universitas Gadjah Mada reacted: “Without education, civilisation cannot exist. Developed countries are committed to investing in human resource development.”

Added an editorial: “Prabowo’s focus on military build-up appears to align with the global trend of countries preferring military action to diplomacy as a means of achieving national interests.”

Apart from spending big on bang-bangs, we know little about the policies and thinking of the man who was educated in Britain and the US. He rarely runs media conferences and prefers talking to house-trained hacks.

He now leans to the East and has joined BRICS after giving the finger to the G7 in Canada back in June.

A shallow report from the Perth USAsia Centre, “aligned” with the WA University, claims: “Prabowo has a nationalist vision of Indonesia’s place in the world, which he views as a place where ‘only those with strength will be respected’.”

The uniforms and strutting parades help the electorate sleep with open windows, but goose steps don’t feed. We need tabloid tucker.

A pirate flag image snitched from Japanese manga One Piece is supposedly being waved by electors fed up with Prabowo; he’s reportedly yawned it away as “just an expression”.

There’s much to whinge about — rising prices, tax enforcement, land snatches, pardoning of court-convicted political mates, the state-owned _Kimia Farma_ drug-maker going bust, plus, plus — but the pirate pic catches the clicks.

Outsiders write that the flag flutters everywhere, rallying dissent; if so, then worm casts are mountain ranges. Your roaming reporter has yet to see one outside social media.

Nonetheless, the world’s fourth-largest population, dashing towards 300 million, is going a worrying way: Prabowo is downgrading the world’s third-largest democracy to yet another military dictatorship.

That was its position last century before a student-led revolution restored rule by, and to, the people.

That ideal is now being eroded; a ceremony in West Java had plump Prabowo wearing dark specs like Dr Strangelove, standing on a blue carpet in a jeep cruising through a forest of red berets. A scene to scuttle the elusive enemies.

Since evicting the Dutch colonialists in the 1940s, Indonesia hasn’t had to deal with any serious external threat. The last involved the CIA backing the Minahasa (North Sulawesi) _Permesta_ movement (Perjuangan Semesta – Universal Struggle), fighting against Jakarta control during the 1950s.

Jokowi’s decade-long civilian rule is waning as Prabowo promotes old mates; some are “linked to human rights violations before the 1998 reform movement”, according to the Jakarta Post:

“Indonesia is marching backwards.” (Rural areas have the undur-undur retreating insect, a staple for proverb writers and political cartoonists.)

In Orde Baru (New Order 1965-1998), the army was “given overarching roles to perpetuate that regime … (Prabowo’s actions have) reinforced public fears about the looming reincarnation of militarism.

“The issue (is the) deep-seated culture of violence that has characterised them and, regretfully, the impunity they have enjoyed.”

This is the news that knocks pirate flag distractions into a cocked hat.

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.