For the past decade, the _most geostrategic_ country in Southeast Asia and the world’s third-largest democracy has been wooed by Washington and Beijing.

Now China has won an engagement. No pre-nup because treaties are banned under the Indonesian Constitution, through everything bar a US divorce decree.

Commented former minister for foreign affairs, Bob Carr: “(Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto) is delivering a savvy Javanese judgment on the slide in America’s credibility and the very idea of a unipolar world marshalled from Washington.”

The implications for us are profound while we’re determinedly married to the US, believing wise Dad is always our protector, even though far away in another hemisphere.

Politicians are ambitious – it’s an essential quality. Another commonality is to be revered, and here Prabowo is an exemplar.

He wants statesman status, a worthy chief of the world’s fourth-largest nation, winning respect for running a ramping economy (above 5% GDP) and — till now — maintaining social harmony in a Muslim-majority multi-faith secular democratic state.

Reasonable if keeping to the moral high ground and the rule of law, Prabowo’s goals don’t climb that far.

Last week’s Indonesia-wide riots were driven by anger over greedy MPs awarding themselves housing bonuses, rising cost-of-living issues and cutbacks on government services.

Reports claim at least 10 have died and more than 1000 injured as private and public properties were trashed and mobs ran amok. Police and military say about 1240 were arrested.

The UN High Commission for Human Rights wants an investigation into “alleged violations of international human rights law”.

“The authorities must uphold the rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression while maintaining order … All security forces, including the military when deployed in a law enforcement capacity, must comply with the basic principles on the use of force and firearms.”

Indonesians fear their country could become ungovernable. That won’t happen as there enough altruistic savants and diplomats with influence. The danger is that authorities can muster only about a million cops and soldiers while a well-organised protest would swamp security in a nation of 285 million.

Much is the fault of Prabowo, who turns 74 next month.

At first, he judged the riots too serious to be out of the country so cancelled a trip to China’s 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. Later, he realised his absence showed distrust of the competence of vice-president Gibran Rakabuming, 37.

The former small-town businessman and mayor got the palace keys through nepotism. He’s the firstborn of Prabowo’s predecessor, Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo, and was supposed to draw the youth vote. That skill requires charisma.

When Prabowo made his TV address six days after the riots started, he was flanked by the leaders of Indonesia’s 10 political parties. Nine are in the government coalition.

He said protesters were traitors and could face bullets if continuing; a decade ago, they would have been condemned as Communists – a slur no longer heard as Prabowo cosies up to the PRC. A public holiday celebrating the birth of the Prophet Muhammad also helped cool the demonstrations.

Scuttlebutt claims Gibran — absent from his boss’s big announcement — has been “exiled” to West Papua to put down the province’s independence movement led by indigenous residents.

Till now, oppression has been left to the military; the press has been banned, ensuring conflict rarely escapes into the mainstream media.

Gibran has never marched a metre in combat boots, so his vice-presidential clout may be minimal, particularly as army veterans have been demanding his impeachment.

His “special assignment” is with the euphemistic Autonomy Acceleration Board based in Papua. The South China Morning Post commented that Gibran, “will have his hands full in trying to bring about lasting peace in Papua, as he has to build trust with tribal communities, including separatist factions, while obeying directives from the capital".

In the 1960s, Indonesia grabbed the resource-rich province (Grasberg is one of the world’s largest gold and copper mines) from its former Dutch coloniser. Some claim half a million local citizens have died in the years since, from displacement, disease and violence.

Back to the present. Prabowo eventually flew to Beijing just in time to squeeze onto the edge of official photos and admire the muscle and might on show, though probably not the talk of seeking immortality which is haram (forbidden) in Islam.

Good for his ego to be among the 25 foreign leaders, particularly the nuclear-powered autocrats like China’s Xi Jinping, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s supremo, prophetically mislabelled “King” Jong-un’ by the ABC.

These are men who do what they like, how they like, unbothered by consultations with citizens who think they should have a say.

Democracy and human rights remain in Indonesia, though quivering on a steep slope, according to Australian academics charting its slippage.

Prabowo finds Western-style democracy unsuitable and has complained that it’s “tiring and messy”. His dislike has not been confined to words.

In the 1998 riots that led to President Soeharto’s downfall, Prabowo was a senior army general. He was dismissed after being allegedly implicated in the disappearance of 13 democracy activists.

More nepotism: He was also Soeharto’s son-in-law, but divorced that year and hasn’t remarried.

The Gerindra party, that Prabowo founded and leads, wants to go back to the 1945 Constitution. It was amended four times at the turn of this century to restore democracy. Melbourne University’s Professor Tim Lindsey commented:

“This is the authoritarian original version of the Constitution that Soeharto relied on to rule. It did not guarantee human rights or a separation of powers, and it gave huge power to the president, who was not elected and had no term limit.”

Indonesia will survive as it has through longer and more tangled crises, like 42 months of Japanese occupation during World War II and maybe four million deaths. Later came the 1965  genocide, when an estimated 500,000 real or imagined Communist supporters were slaughtered.

The biggest archipelago in the world, with more than 300 distinct ethnic groups, has resilience. Prabowo’s hoodwinking of the electorate will be widely exposed, so others can repair the damage caused by militarising a nation that’s not under threat and allowing the social situation to degenerate.

How should Australia react to these changes? The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade says:

“Australia’s security, prosperity, and economic future are linked to Southeast Asia. Our connections to the region go beyond geography, with enduring family, business, education and tourism ties. We share a vision for a region that is peaceful, stable and prosperous, where sovereignty is respected and international law is upheld.

“Deepening Australia’s engagement with Southeast Asia is a priority for the Australian Government.”

Indonesia moving away from the US opens opportunities for Canberra to get serious about the engagement, make it the priority and promote people-to-people closeness. Till now, the emphasis has been on security, trade and defence.

Should we offer Indonesian tourists visa-free travel, open more scholarships to study at our unis? Less engagement with their military and more with their work-and-holiday young wanting to explore and see what’s possible?

Perhaps a familiarity tour of our democracy for Gibran? Seek and nurture potential leaders from academia and NGOs – or just wait and watch lest we be accused of neocolonial manipulation?

Our decisions today will shape future relations with our neighbour and the region.

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