When President Prabowo Subianto takes the podium at the United Nations General Assembly on September 23, following Brazil’s President Lula da Silva and US President Donald Trump, he faces a choice. He can be dismissed as a hypocrite, mocked, and forgotten. Or he can deliver the speech of his life, one that cuts through the noise and earns its place in history.
The world is restless. Wars continue. Climate disasters worsen. Inequality deepens. Trust in international institutions is eroding. The United Nations, once envisioned as a guardian of global peace, now struggles even to hold the attention of its member states. Many speeches will be delivered in New York, but few will be remembered.
Prabowo has a chance to deliver one that is. But people, both at home and abroad, are tired of propaganda, bombast, and hollow promises. They are no longer moved by cosmetic diplomacy or unrealistic declarations. What they long for is honesty. Not perfection. Not posturing. Just truth.
Indonesia was never meant to be a minor player in the moral imagination of the world. From the Bandung Conference in 1955 to President Soekarno’s powerful “To Build the World Anew” speech at the UN in 1960, Indonesia once spoke for the colonized, the oppressed, and the silenced. Soekarno called for the dismantling of colonialism, the end of arrogance, and the creation of a just and equal world. For decades, that moral voice has faded. But today, as the annihilation of the Palestinian people continues, those echoes return with urgency.
The crisis in Gaza is not just another war, and not merely a conflict between two sides. It is the systematic destruction of a people. A genocide unfolding before our eyes. Children buried beneath rubble. Hospitals turned into graveyards. Families erased in an instant. To call this anything less is to participate in the lie.
At the UN General Assembly, Prabowo must call it what it is. Diplomatic language has its place, but sometimes words must burn. This is one of those times. If Prabowo stands before the world and declares that Palestine is a test of our shared conscience, that what is happening is genocide and ethnic cleansing, he will cut through the fog of equivocation that so often dominates the stage.
He should insist that justice for Palestine is essential to lasting peace in the Middle East. He should call clearly and without hesitation for a real two-state solution: a fully sovereign and independent Palestine along the pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and a secure Israel living in peace and dignity beside it.
But more than outlining policy positions, Prabowo must confront the hypocrisy that has corroded the international order. He must say what many fear to say: that the world cannot condemn aggression in one place while financing it in another. That humanity cannot be selectively applied. That the life of a Palestinian child is worth no less than the life of any other child.
This is not only about Palestine. It is also about the credibility of the United Nations itself.
Of course, critics will be quick to point to Indonesia’s own human rights record, particularly in Papua, or to Prabowo’s own past as a military commander accused of abuses. They will be ready to dismiss his words as hypocrisy. But the best way to disarm that critique is not to ignore it. It is to acknowledge it.
Imagine if Prabowo were to say before the world, “I do not stand here as the leader of a perfect nation, nor as a flawless man. I have been a soldier. I have seen war. I have carried out duties that earned me both honor and criticism. I have been judged, sometimes rightly. And it is precisely because I have seen the darkness of humanity that I know how urgent it is to choose peace and justice.”
Such a statement would be unprecedented. It would not be an admission of guilt in legal terms, but a gesture of humility and moral clarity. It would make him relatable. It would turn his past, so often seen as a burden, into the foundation of a powerful moral appeal.
Honesty, not perfection, is what the world longs to hear.
Such honesty would not only redeem the man, it would reaffirm the nation’s global purpose.
Prabowo could then link this humility to Indonesia’s historic role in global affairs. As the largest Muslim-majority country, the world’s third-largest democracy, and a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement, Indonesia carries both the burden and the privilege of speaking for the Global South.
By invoking the legacy of Bandung, he can remind the world that Indonesia once helped unite Asia and Africa against colonialism, and that today, the unfinished mission of Bandung is to unite the world against new forms of domination and injustice.
He should offer Indonesia not as a lecturer, but as a bridge-builder, ready to mediate dialogue, contribute peacekeepers, send humanitarian aid, and help rebuild Palestine. In doing so, he would place Indonesia once again at the moral center of global affairs.
For Prabowo himself, such a speech would be transformative. Abroad, he is often viewed through the lens of past controversies. At home, he is seen by some as a man more comfortable in uniform than in statesmanship. But at the United Nations, he can redefine himself. Not just as a soldier, but as a statesman forged by the brutal lessons of war. Not as a flawless leader, but as a human being who has seen the cost of violence and now chooses a different path.
He has the opportunity to turn accusation into reflection. To turn past shadows into present clarity. And in doing so, he could also reshape Indonesia’s standing in the world. From a cautious middle power to a moral force once more.
History will not remember most of the speeches delivered at this year’s General Assembly. But it will remember if an Indonesian president dares to stand on that stage and name genocide for what it is. Dares to admit his own imperfections. Dares to summon the world to build the world anew.
Prabowo has often been underestimated. He has often been doubted. But sometimes, history rewards the leader who takes the risk of honesty.
The world does not need another safe speech. It needs a voice that speaks the truth, even when it is uncomfortable. It needs a leader who can say, “I am not perfect. My country is not perfect. But we will not be silent in the face of injustice.”
That is what Prabowo should say at the United Nations.
And if he does, the world will listen.
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Omong-Omong Media’s editorial is also published in The Jakarta Post every Monday.
