COMMENT | Shall Indonesia celebrate Prabowo's victory?

COMMENT | I am greatly disturbed by a slew of bewildering Western news on Indonesia’s presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto.

Generally speaking, any news from the Western media is often taken with a pinch of salt.

Nevertheless, when a media like Democracy Now critically examines Prabowo’s victory, a person like me who has been consistently following this media - especially on the armed conflict in Gaza - is consumed by a dilemma to simply ignore its media coverage and treat it as mere Western propaganda.

After all, Democracy Now has often been universally hailed as a reliable and trusted media.

Recently, Democracy Now interviewed Allan Nairn. Nairn is a well-known American investigative journalist and he was imprisoned by Indonesian military forces under United States-backed strongman Suharto while reporting in East Timor.

Prabowo, Nairn argues, used to claim that Indonesia was not ready for...