After a decade-spanning quest for power, Prabowo Subianto has finally won Indonesia’s presidency. While his social media team presents him as a cuddly, cat-loving grandpa  —  gemoy in Indonesian slang  —  the résumé of this self-described fascist includes coup attempts, ties to the criminal underworld, and accusations of human rights violations ranging from kidnapping to genocide. During his twenty-eight-year career in the Indonesian Army (TNI), Prabowo earned a reputation for extrajudicial violence that eventually led to a dishonorable discharge.

As Robert S. Gelbard, a former US ambassador to Indonesia, once remarked: “Prabowo certainly is somebody who is perhaps the greatest violator of human rights in contemporary times among the Indonesian military. His deeds in the late ’90s before democracy took hold were shocking, even by TNI standards.”

Prabowo was born into a well-connected family in 1951. When his father came into conflict with President Sukarno over the government’s economic policies, the family went into political exile, and he was raised and educated in Britain, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Switzerland. The family returned to Indonesia in the early years of the New Order dictatorship (1966–1998), shortly after the infamous anti-communist bloodbath that cemented Suharto’s grip on power.