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View all search resultsFrom rivals to allies: Prabowo’s othello strategy
Prabowo’s political architecture strategy is to embrace former political adversaries within a single, inclusive framework, a “big tent” coalition.
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President Prabowo Subianto (right) greets House of Representatives Speaker Puan Maharani (left) before delivering a speech on the macroeconomic framework to lawmakers at the Senayan Legislative Complex in Central Jakarta on May 20, 2026. (AFP/Bay Ismoyo)
T
he chess metaphor is frequently used as a reference for interpreting the maneuvers of the elite in Indonesia: who eliminates whom, which pieces are sacrificed and how checkmate is executed.
However, analyzing President Prabowo Subianto’s leadership and his consolidation strategy through the lens of chess often I assume leads to erroneous conclusions. Observing his moves thus far, it appears he is not playing chess; rather, he is playing a political game of othello.
Othello is a board game developed by Goro Hasegawa from Japan in the 1940s. The name “othello” refers to William Shakespeare’s play of the same title, written in 1603. The black and white colors in the game symbolize the main characters: Othello, who is black, and his wife Desdemona, who is white. Meanwhile, the dynamic of flipping pieces one by one toward victory (or defeat) mirrors a dramatic arc filled with intrigue and drastic reversals of fortune.
The fundamental difference between chess and othello lies in how opponents are treated. Chess is a game of elimination. In this sense, chess operates on the principle of a zero-sum game. Othello, conversely, involves no elimination of pieces. Any opponent’s piece that is successfully flanked has its color flipped to become an ally’s piece.
This is the philosophy underpinning Prabowo’s political architecture. His strategy is to embrace former political adversaries within a single, inclusive framework, a “big tent” coalition.
The post-2024 presidential election landscape serves as a vivid illustration of the “sandwich and flip” tactic in action. Prabowo did not let the Nasdem Party and the National Awakening Party (PKB) solidify their positions outside of power. These two “pieces” were successfully “flipped” into the governing coalition. Prabowo also brought the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) into the coalition fold to preempt the formation of a solid ideological opposition in the legislature.
And rather than treating the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) as a rival to be isolated, he has maintained high-level communication channels. Recently, PDI-P chairperson Megawati Soekarnoputri herself rejected the label of “opposition”. She prefers the term penyeimbang (counterbalance) to highlight the special relationship between herself and Prabowo.
