January 6, 2026 | 01:55 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – President Prabowo Subianto has described his time as defense minister under former president Joko Widodo as an “internship,” saying the experience helped prepare him for his current role as head of state.
Prabowo said he was grateful for the opportunity to serve in Jokowi’s administration, despite having been his political rival in previous elections.
“I am grateful for the opportunity to join President Joko Widodo’s government,” Prabowo said during his speech at the National Christmas celebration at Senayan, Jakarta, on Monday, January 5, 2026.
According to Prabowo, his five-year tenure as defense minister was a period of learning within the executive branch.
“For me, those five years were like an internship, a learning period,” said the chair of the Gerindra Party.
Prabowo praised Jokowi for inviting him into the cabinet after the 2019 presidential election, in which the two faced each other as rivals. He said he would have taken a similar approach had he won the election.
“I said to some colleagues, I told them, when it was 2019, I was the losing candidate. But when I entered the cabinet room, I saw and I said, if I had won, most of the cabinet members would have helped me,” he said.
Prabowo noted that he has now applied that same attitude as president. He pointed out that several ministers in his Red and White Cabinet previously served under Jokowi.
“It has been proven that once I became president, many of them (ministers from Jokowi’s era) joined me,” Prabowo said, adding that this reflected shared principles between him and his predecessor.
During the speech, Prabowo also reflected on his repeated electoral defeats. He lost to Jokowi in the presidential elections in 2014 and 2019, and earlier failed in the 2009 race when he ran as vice president alongside Megawati Soekarnoputri.
Prabowo said becoming president was ultimately a matter of destiny. He then joked that his earlier losses were due to a lack of support from Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, the current chairman of the National Economic Council.
“I participated in the elections four times, and lost three times. It’s because at that time, Pak Luhut didn’t support me,” Prabowo said, drawing laughter from the audience.
Read: Survey Ranks Indonesia Happiest Nation; Prabowo Responds
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