Uncooperative World Elites Causes Global Conflict: Prabowo
- 30 Jun 2026 11:52 WIB
- Voice of Indonesia
RRI.CO.ID, Jakarta - Indonesian President, Prabowo Subianto, highlighted the role of political elites in the conflicts that have unfolded around the world in recent years. He said that many conflicts stem from the inability of domestic and international elites to work together.
Speaking at the opening of the National Workshop of the 2026 Science, Technology, and Innovation Convention in Jakarta on Saturday, June 27, 2026, Prabowo said he had learned this lesson from studying history, which he said is one of his passions. According to him, successful nations are characterized by elites unwilling to cooperate.
"Nations whose elites can cooperate are the ones that rise. Nations whose elites are constantly unable to cooperate will never reach their full potential," he said.
Addressing more than 2,000 academicians attending the convention, Prabowo invited them to reflect on the many conflicts taking place around the world today. He pointed to the Russo–Ukrainian war, noting that the two countries share many similarities.
"If we look at them, they are of the same race, the same ethnic background, and many share the same religion. Yet the war continues to claim tens of thousands of lives every month," he said.
Prabowo also remarked that the conflict between the two countries "has already lasted longer than World War II". While the current large-scale war began when Russia launched its "special military operation" in 2022, hostilities between the two sides date back to Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.
The president also drew attention to the conflict in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. He said that more than 2,000 Israeli soldiers had been killed, while more than 83,000 Hamas fighters and civilians in Gaza had died.
"Ninety percent of Gaza has been flattened—perhaps with consequences comparable to Hiroshima or Nagasaki," he said, referring to the devastation caused by the two atomic bombs dropped by the United States on Japan in 1945 during World War II.
In addition, Indonesia's eighth president pointed to conflicts in other parts of the world, including the fighting between Israel and Lebanon, the civil wars in Yemen and Myanmar, tensions involving the United States, Israel, and Iran, the conflict in Afghanistan, separatist unrest in Pakistan's Balochistan region, and the border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand.
"Ladies and gentlemen, amid all of this, one of the key issues is that elites cannot work together... I believe this is something we need to reflect on as we think about how to govern a nation," he said.
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