Prabowo Subianto paid a visit to former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s house in Cikeas, West Java, yesterday.
The retired army general offered his condolences on the passing of Yudhoyono’s wife, Ani Yudhoyono. Prabowo, who had lost the 2019 election to the incumbent Joko Widodo had travelled to Dubai and Austria via his private jet earlier this week. He was therefore unable to attend the funeral of the former first lady on Sunday.
Prabowo told the reporters and journalists that he had known Mrs. Yudhoyono and her father, the late Indonesian military leader Sarwo Edhie Wibowo, since he was a teenager. “I think she (Ani) had always been a very supportive wife to her husband. She was a smart and loyal woman,” he elaborated. Prabowo went on to claim that the late Ani Yudhoyono voted for him during the 2014 and 2019 elections. He left SBY’s residence shortly after making the statement.
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who was accompanied by Hatta Rajasa, Prabowo’s running mate in the 2014 election and Hinca Panjaitan, Secretary-General of the Democratic Party, immediately approached the reporters and humbly asked them to not publish the part in which Prabowo revealed his late wife’s political preferences. The former president deemed Prabowo’s statement as ‘inappropriate’.
“With regard to Prabowo’s earlier statement, please understand that we are still mourning. I think it’s inappropriate to reveal whom she had voted for in the past as Ibu Ani had just passed away, and she never wished to be mentioned in relation to any kind of politics,” Yudhoyono added.
Source: The Jakarta Post
Image: Suara