Prabowo Shares His Habit of Waking Up Early to Monitor Global Issues on YouTube

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has revealed that he has a habit of intensively monitoring developments in issues and news until the early hours of the morning. Prabowo also described himself as part of the news junkies, as he routinely follows the flow of global information. “This is it, we are news junkies. We’ve been hooked,” said Prabowo during a discussion with journalists and experts in Hambalang, Bogor, West Java, quoted from a press release by the Indonesian Government Communication Agency (Bakom), Friday (20/3/2026). “So sometimes I go to bed at one in the morning, but I wake up again at three in the morning. Why? This is the problem, technology. There’s YouTube,” he said. He does this to stay informed about news from various countries around the world. “We are four hours behind the Middle East, then several hours behind America. So I have to follow what happens. And that’s probably what keeps me always a bit up to date,” explained Prabowo. “Because I have the habit of waking up at three, I open YouTube. Three in the morning in Singapore is, if I’m not mistaken, three in the afternoon in Washington DC. So if President Biden has just said something, I can read it right away. When it was nine or ten my time for the speech, I was the first to give my response to Biden’s speech,” he revealed. In addition, Prabowo also shared his habit of finding opportunities to rest amid his busy schedule as President of Indonesia. This was conveyed by Prabowo while answering a question from political analyst Rizal Mallarangeng in the discussion forum. “So maybe this is knowledge I got from the military. For me, for example, when riding in a car I can sleep, in a helicopter I can sleep, in an aeroplane I can sleep,” he said. Prabowo also admitted to utilising short intervals between activities to rest. “For me, 15 minutes to recharge like that, especially 20 minutes. My ideal is actually 30 minutes,” he said.