Prabowo's Tale: Entrepreneurs and Soldiers Share Similar Traits

President Prabowo Subianto has said there are similarities between entrepreneurs and soldiers. He made the remarks while attending the launch of the National Electric Motorcycle in Cikarang, Bekasi Regency, West Java Province, on Thursday (13/8/2026).

In his speech, he congratulated the national entrepreneurs within the Indika Group who initiated the production of the electric motorcycle. He expressed appreciation for their courage.

“That initiative is courage, because initiative carries risk. Everything you invested years ago could fail. Even today there is risk. Today I invite you all to be Indonesia Incorporated, we must become one. The strong, the medium, the somewhat medium and the weak must unite,” Prabowo said.

“To this day I say, truly Mr Arsjad (Arsjad Rasjid), Mr Wisnu (Wisnu Wardhana) of the Indika group, you still face risk, you face extraordinary competition from great nations. Japan, Korea, China, and yet you still dare, ladies and gentlemen,” he continued.

The former Minister of Defence then spoke about his service as a soldier. After that, he retired and became an entrepreneur.

“That is why I truly understand that being an entrepreneur, being self-employed, has almost the same character as being a soldier. An entrepreneur uses the word wiraswasta,” Prabowo said.

“Because he fights and he also applies the art of war. There is intelligence too, research and development is intelligence, then there is logistics, everything is calculated. So they still face risk, still face risk, but there is courage,” he continued.

Furthermore, Prabowo said this programme serves the national interest. The aim is to avoid energy dependence on other countries.

“We are too big to depend on outsiders, too big. If there is a war in a distant place, our people could become victims, we have no interest there. If there is a dispute somewhere, a trade war somewhere, we are affected, we are always haunted,” Prabowo said.

“It cannot continue. It turns out that if we study properly, we do not need to understand too deeply, Indonesia has extraordinary strength, Indonesia has extraordinary natural resources. The only question is whether we can protect and manage them,” he continued.