Indonesia’s Minister of Defence, Pak Prabowo, is a cat lover

The currently-appointed Minister of Defence of the Republic of Indonesia is Pak Prabowo, full name: Prabowo Subianto Djojohadikusumo.

Indonesia's Defence Minister with cat — Indonesia’s Defence Minister with cat. Photo: Instagram.

My research tells me that he loves his cat and I will expand that to say that he loves cats in general. In truth it is not clear if the cat is his or if the cat is a working cat in the Ministry of Defence. I think the cat is his companion. The doubts are there because all the information is in Indonesian and via Instagram!

The reason why I have noted this snippet of information is because he is a former army general and soldiers are more inclined to like dogs.

This man is independent-minded. I note that he was dishonourably discharged from the army for alleged human rights violations (Wikipedia). He has had a chequered career as they say. He ran a business which allegedly failed to pay its employees for five months.

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Kemarin sesampainya di Kertanegara, seperti biasa Pak Prabowo disambut hangat oleh sang penguasa Kertanegara “bobby”. Belajar dari pengalaman yang sudah2, bahwa adat nya bobby sangat unik, jika Pak Prabowo lupa utk bermain ketika tiba di Kertanegara dan lupa pamit ketika ingin kembali ke Hambalang, pasti keesokan hari nya bobby mogok makan dan acuh ketika di panggil. Heheh dasar bobby! Pak Prabowo memang penyayang hewan, mungkin sahabat belum tau, bahwa Pak Prabowo bisa berkomunikasi dengan hewan. Lho, kok bisa? Pernah suatu ketika saat sarapan pagi, salmon yang akan dimakan oleh Pak Prabowo di kerubuti oleh semut, lalu secara reflek saya mengabil salmon itu dengan niat mengganti dgn salmon yang baru. Kemudian Pak Prabowo mencegah, lalu mengambil piring salmon yang di kerubuti oleh semut2 tadi dan berkata “semut, saya mau makan, tolong kamu jangan disini”, lalu piring salmon itu di letakan persis di meja kecil disebelah kursi bapak. Lalu apa yg terjadi? Kurang dari 1 menit, salmon itu bersih tanpa ada seekor semut pun yg mengkerubuti salmon tersebut, setelah bersih dari semut Pak Prabowo kemudian memakan salmon tadi. Cerita lain yang masih berkaitan dengan hewan. Suatu ketika kami sedang diskusi di office Pak Prabowo di hambalang, mungkin karna pada saat itu musim hujan, jadi ada beberapa nyamuk yang masuk ke office Pak Prabowo. Lalu, salah dua dari nyamuk itu hinggap di tangan Pak Prabowo, Dan apa yg terjadi? Pak Prabowo bilang “nyamuk, saya sedang rapat, kamu jangan disini, nanti kamu di bisa di tepuk sama rizki” Sama seperti si semut tadi, tidak butuh waktu lama, nyamuk2 itu langsung pergi. Belum lagi dengan kuda kesayangan Pak Prabowo, yang setiap pagi selalu memanggil Pak Prabowo untuk meminta apel dan wortel. Nama nya “Principe” dia jg unik, hanya mau makan kalau di suapi Pak Prabowo. Hehe Sahabat, masih banyak pengalaman yang saya saksikan secara langsung sebagai sekertaris pribadi ttg kedekatan Pak Prabowo dan hewan, baik itu sapi, kambing, burung elang hingga tikus dan kecoa. Hehe Saya merasakan seperti ada “gelombang kebaikan” dari dalam diri Pak Prabowo, sehingga hewan-hewan ini merasa aman berada di sekeliling Pak Prabowo.
A post shared by Rizky irmansyah (@rizky_irmansyah) on Apr 24, 2019 at 8:17pm PDT

But he loves his cat. He has to have some good personal qualities. You can’t love a cat without being reasonably decent at least.

P.S. I have to touch on a more serious and disturbing aspect of Indonesian life. There is animal abuse. Their animal welfare laws are crappy. They destroy wild cat species’ forest habitat for plantations and hence destroy the cat species. There is a lot to desired in this country in terms of attitude towards animal welfare which sadly reflects the attitude of neighbouring countries. Asia has a lot of work to do to enhance animal welfare. Pak Prabowo should step up and work on this.

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