More than a year into the job, Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto is pushing his country to the front of global affairs, according to a profile aired by ABC. The broadcaster charted how the leader of the world's most populous Muslim nation is using both an assertive foreign policy and a sweeping domestic agenda to reshape Indonesia's standing in the world.
On the international stage, Prabowo has offered 8,000 troops after controversially joining what is known as the Board of Peace. He has also signalled that he wants to help negotiate a peace between the United States and Iran, an unusually prominent diplomatic role for an Indonesian leader and one that has put him squarely in the middle of a tense global standoff.
At home, his plans are already under way. He casts Indonesia as increasingly a land of opportunity and has promised to eradicate poverty while setting the country on a path of self-reliance. He speaks of building a so-called golden Indonesia carried by a golden generation, arguing that intervention from the earliest stage is the way to get there.
To deliver that vision, Prabowo is swiftly nationalising the economy and expanding the military. That mix of greater state control over economic life and a larger armed forces sits at the very centre of how he intends to achieve his ambitions for the country, and it has quickly become the defining feature of his time in office.
Not everyone is reassured. Critics worry that his leadership echoes a violent, corrupt and repressive past. They point back to the three decades of dictatorship under General Suharto, whose grip on power eventually collapsed, and they note that Prabowo himself is Suharto's former son-in-law, a connection that hangs over his presidency.
One critic told the program that the moment felt like a return to their student years, a time spent hoping Indonesia could become a genuine democracy, only to sense the country now sliding in reverse. Asked directly whether the Prabowo era was starting to resemble the Suharto era, the answer was blunt: yes, it is.
The stakes are framed against the country's own recent history. Nearly 30 years ago, demonstrators overthrew Indonesia's authoritarian president, and sweeping democratic reforms followed in the years afterwards. Some now fear those hard-won freedoms are once again at risk. Indonesia remains home to more than 280 million people spread across a vast archipelago of diverse cultures.