TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - An invitation to meet President Prabowo Subianto came to Rukka Sombolinggi in late May 2026. Rukka received a message from one of Prabowo's associates saying that the President was willing to hold discussions with the Secretary General of the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN). The invitation came as the Indigenous Peoples Bill was becoming a major topic of debate in the House of Representatives (DPR).
Rukka recalled that Prabowo's confidant never disclosed what the meeting would cover. Still, she suspected the President wanted to discuss the Indigenous Peoples Bill, which had languished in the House for 18 years. Together with AMAN, a number of civil society organizations, and indigenous community groups, Rukka had been actively campaigning for the bill's passage.
Rukka declined the invitation. The meeting, she said, had been scheduled to take place at Prabowo's private residence in Hambalang, Bogor Regency, West Java. She insisted that she would meet the President only at the State Palace in Jakarta. "I don't want to bow and scrape," she said in Palmerah, West Jakarta, on Thursday, July 23, 2026.
Rukka acknowledged that rejecting the invitation could affect the fate of the Indigenous Peoples Bill. First introduced in 2008, the draft legislation had repeatedly been included in the National Legislative Program, yet the House had never passed it.
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