Jakarta. To many people around the world, Feb. 14 is a day to confess their love. But in 2024, that date was a day like no other for Indonesians. It was far from romantic, but how the day turned out would determine hundreds of millions of people’s lives for the next five years. 

Indonesians had spent months getting to know three men: Anies Baswedan, Prabowo Subianto, and Ganjar Pranowo. These three big personalities were looking to lead Southeast Asia’s largest economy as the successor to former President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo who had been in power for a decade. Anies was the governor of Indonesia's capital Jakarta in 2017-2022. Prabowo was both Jokowi’s long-time political rival and defense minister in the latter’s second term. Ganjar used to be the governor of Central Java -- a province of 37 million people -- between 2013 and 2023.

They were not alone. Anies had picked Muhaimin Iskandar, who chairs the Islam-based National Awakening Party (PKB), as his vice presidential candidate. Prabowo’s running mate was Gibran Rakabuming Raka, Jokowi’s eldest son and former Solo mayor. Ganjar decided to run for president with former chief security affairs minister and law professor Mohammad Mahfud MD.

On Valentine’s Day, Indonesians had to go to their local polling stations to make their big decision. They grabbed a large piece of paper, used a nail to punch a hole over a portrait of their selected candidate pair, and folded it nicely into the ballot box. Indonesians also had to vote for their national and provincial lawmakers that day, making it the world’s largest single-day election.

About 204.8 million people were eligible to vote this year. After losing to Jokowi in the past two elections, Prabowo finally secured a landslide victory with 96.2 million votes. This is equivalent to nearly 58.6 percent of the legitimate votes.

During the campaign season, Prabowo had promised to embrace Jokowi’s popular agenda. This includes Jokowi’s stance on resource nationalism and the capital relocation plan, to name a few. When the world was inching closer to Prabowo’s inauguration, his military background sparked questions about what his leadership style would be like. That question also came up at the Qatar Economic Forum in May to which the retired army general responded “I will be myself.”

It also did not take long before Prabowo tried to get closer to fellow world leaders. In less than two weeks after being declared the election winner, he flew to Beijing to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping. A few months later, he visited Russian leader Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin, among others, to nudge Moscow to help Indonesia develop nuclear power generation.

Before retiring in October, Jokowi -- who gained the nickname of “Father of Infrastructure” -- was busy launching toll roads and dams. Indonesia has witnessed an infrastructure boom under Jokowi. To the businessman-turned-politician, infrastructure was key for Indonesia to charm both local and international investors. The archipelagic country built new roads spanning 366,000 kilometers over the past decade. New bridge construction under Jokowi’s presidency reached 1.9 million kilometers. Jokowi also inaugurated 47 dams, even saying that “no water, no life” as these structures could suppress floods and help water the nearby rice fields. Indonesia is now home to Southeast Asia’s first-ever high-speed train, which connects the buzzing Jakarta and the West Javan capital of Bandung -- a $7.3 billion project that mainly relied on Chinese funding.

But Jokowi’s most ambitious project of all is the new capital Nusantara, which lies in East Kalimantan. Building an entirely new city from scratch has a price tag of $33 billion, according to early government estimates. But to Jokowi, all the hard work would be worth it as Nusantara could pave the way for an “Indonesia-centric development”. It is expected to shift economic activities away from being heavily concentrated in Java. When he stepped down a few months ago, Jokowi handed over the task of inking the decree on the capital relocation to Prabowo. The decree remains to be signed to this day, hence Jakarta remains Indonesia’s capital, or at least for now. 

Prabowo has vowed to carry on the Nusantara project, even claiming that he had invested in the new capital as a businessman. Prabowo has yet to set foot in what is poised to be a “green city” since becoming president. He is currently mulling to officially start working from Nusantara in 2028.

About two months and a week have passed since Prabowo took his oath of office in front of the country’s lawmakers, world leaders, and most importantly: the hundreds of millions of Indonesians watching the televised ceremony. Prabowo also formed the giant Merah Putih (‘Red and White’) cabinet -- comprising 48 ministers, 5 minister-level officials, and 56 vice ministers. Some of Jokowi’s ministers got reappointed, including economic czar Airlangga Hartarto and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati. Early on in his presidency, Prabowo made headlines by sending his cabinet members on a military-style retreat in Magelang -- all to build teamwork.

The relatively freshly established government is now trying to achieve some of the country’s most ambitious targets yet. 

Prabowo seeks to unlock 8 percent growth during his term, way above the 5 percent rate that Indonesia has been growing at. He wants Indonesia to be self-sufficient in food production by 2027. In other words, the country aims to feed its population, which now tops 280 million people, without having to rely on imports. Many of his speeches touched on the well-being of Indonesia’s low-income families. In his inaugural speech, Prabowo said that the government should not get full of itself just because the country is a G20 member, especially since a large part of the population is still living in poverty. He has made promises of wanting to beef up the anti-corruption fight while urging graft convicts to repent by returning the stolen state assets.

As president, Prabowo -- who is fluent in English -- proved to be quite the diplomat. He had gone overseas back and forth to attend major forums like the G20 and make state visits. Outgoing US President Joe Biden hosted Prabowo at the White House just last month. Most recently, he told the Developing-8 forum that Islamic world unity would be pivotal to defending Palestine. When it comes to foreign diplomacy, Prabowo believes that “one thousand friends is too few. One enemy is too many.”

Prabowo and his Merah Putih cabinet will hit the 100-day in-office mark in late January. 

The government is now facing mounting pressure to postpone or cancel the value-added tax (VAT) hike. The Prabowo administration already announced that they would proceed with the plan to raise the VAT from 11 percent to 12 percent starting on Wednesday. The VAT increase was a mandate from the 2021 taxation law that was passed under Jokowi. But people are still hoping that Prabowo will make some last-minute changes.

Prabowo’s flagship free meal program is also set to make or break his 100-day review. When running for president, he made a promise to feed Indonesian students -- starting from preschoolers to high school-age teens -- free, nutritious meals to bring down the country’s stunting rate. The government has set aside Rp 71 trillion ($4.4 billion) to fund the school feeding program in 2025 alone. The planned spending for each lunch plate has been subject to change. But at present, Indonesia is only planning to spend Rp 10,000 for each lunch plate, lower than the originally intended Rp 15,000 per meal budget. After months of pilot runs, Prabowo will launch the free meal program in a week from now.

From Jokowi to Prabowo, the change in leadership does mark a new chapter for Indonesia. As a new year begins, expectations are high for Prabowo and his Merah Putih cabinet.