JAKARTA, Indonesia, Oct 20, (AP): Prabowo Subianto was inaugurated Sunday as the eighth president of the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, completing his journey from an ex-general accused of rights abuses during the dark days of Indonesia’s military dictatorship to the presidential palace. The former defense minister, who turned 73 on Thursday, was cheered through the streets by thousands of waving supporters after taking his oath on the Quran, the Muslim holy book, in front of lawmakers and foreign dignitaries.

Banners and billboards to welcome the new president filled the streets of the capital, Jakarta, where tens of thousands gathered for festivities including speeches and musical performances along the city’s major throughfare. Wearing a blue Betawi traditional cloth and a dark baseball cap, Subianto stood up in the sunroof of a white van and waved, occasionally shaking peoples' hands, as his motorcade struggled to pass through the thousands of supporters calling his name and chanting "Good luck Prabowo-Gibran,” filling the road leading from the parliament building to the presidential palace.

"I see a firm and patriotic figure in him,” said Atalaric Eka Prayoga, a 25-year-old Jakarta resident. "That’s a figure we need to lead Indonesia.” "I have high hopes that he can build Indonesia to be more advanced and improve the current gloomy economic situation,” said another resident, Silky Putri. Subianto was a longtime rival of the immensely popular President Joko Widodo, who ran against him for the presidency twice and refused to accept his defeat on both occasions, in 2014 and 2019.

But Widodo appointed Subianto as defense chief after his reelection, paving the way for an alliance despite their rival political parties. During the campaign, Subianto ran as the popular outgoing president’s heir, vowing to continue signature policies like the construction of a multibillion-dollar new capital city and limits on exporting raw materials intended to boost domestic industry.