I never understood why the US Govt/CIA tried to interfere in the election?

If they’re worried about China - Indonesia relations, they should try to get rid Luhut and his cronies in Golkar.

The current defense minister (Prabowo) agreed to buy F-15s from murica, yeah I know he’s not a good candidate. But there’s another candidate not perfect but at least he’s more neutral

And there’s a good comment from the website, while it’s not entirely correct

John :

Has the author done any research on the political candidates? Prabowo is the former son-in-law of Suharto and served as a high-ranking military officer who had a direct role in planning the invasion of Timor Leste. He also held a leading position during the 1998 demonstrations where university students were kidnapped, tortured and murdered. He is a graduate of Fort Bening… you know… the camp where military officers around the world are taught torture methods. He has advocated for returning to Indonesia’s 1945 constitution, the one used by the Suharto dictatorship. He was the go-to man for the US government to invade Indonesia. He has never acknowledged any of his human rights abuses. He ran against Joko Widodo in 2014 and 2019 and lost both times. All of this is not mentioned in the article. We only see and read that the US is concerned about Prabowo and maybe wants Anies to win.

While I appreciate the detail this article goes into about the leaked documents, I think there is some important context missing. For example: why does the US appear antagonistic towards Prabowo now? Why did President Joko Widodo appoint Prabowo as his minister of defense in his second term, and then endorse him (as well as his own party’s nominee, Ganjar) for president in the upcoming 2024 election? Like imagine Obama in 2013, just a couple months after winning the election appointing Mitt Romney as his secretary of Defense and then endorsing both Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney for president. What changed? Has Jokowi’s influence rubbed off on Prabowo so much that he has decided to drop his long-standing alliance with the US or is he taking a different route to try to return to the US-alligned military dictatorship, or is there something else happening? Why does the US seem to support Anies? Do the documents indicate the US’s stance towards Ganjar, the nominee in Jokowi’s party? I think these issues should be addressed in the article, but I understand that it may have been cut short for length.

The information from these documents is very alarming. I hope Mintpress does more coverage on this topic, especially with the election being so soon. You are doing important work.