Indonesia’s Vice-President, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, has offered to resign after a meeting with President Prabowo Subianto, amid growing questions over whether his academic qualifications met the requirements for public office. The offer, made during more than two hours of talks on Tuesday, has thrown the leadership of the world’s fourth most populous country into uncertainty.
Gibran, 39, is the son of former President Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi, and he helped Prabowo win the 2024 presidential election by a huge margin. His candidacy had already been controversial, after a Constitutional Court ruling in 2023 allowed him to run despite being below the minimum age of 40 for presidential and vice-presidential candidates.
The controversy escalated last month, when the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court issued rulings on the education documents Gibran had submitted as a candidate. The Constitutional Court found insufficient evidence of his secondary school qualifications, although it dismissed a challenge to his eligibility on procedural grounds. The Supreme Court subsequently invalidated a certificate that recognised his overseas education as equivalent to Indonesian secondary schooling.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Gibran told Prabowo that he was willing to resign “in light of the evolving situation”, according to State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi, who is also the presidential spokesperson. Hadi told reporters at a news conference at the presidential palace that it was not immediately clear whether Prabowo had accepted the resignation.
Hadi denied reports that Prabowo had rejected Gibran’s request, but he stopped short of saying the president had accepted it. Later on Tuesday, Gibran told reporters that Prabowo had advised him to “continue pursuing legal avenues to defend the validity of his academic documents”, and to fight to prove his credentials. Gibran said he would appeal the Supreme Court ruling and pursue his case at the Administrative Court.
The government subsequently clarified that Gibran remained vice-president and continued to perform his official duties, and that no formal resignation letter had been submitted. But the offer itself has raised the prospect of a power struggle within Prabowo’s governing coalition, and has further weakened the influence of Jokowi, whose son’s political future is now in doubt.
About 50 lawmakers have also submitted a parliamentary motion that could pave the way for impeachment proceedings, and lawmakers in parliament are considering launching an inquiry into Gibran’s qualifications. Some analysts believe such an inquiry could be the first step towards his impeachment, although parliament is overwhelmingly controlled by Prabowo’s “big tent” coalition.
The meeting between Prabowo and Gibran came amid a widening political rift between the president and Jokowi, the popular two-term former president. Gibran’s resignation offer is the latest sign of that rift, and it has fuelled speculation about the balance of power within the coalition that brought Prabowo to office.
Gibran had kept a low profile as vice-president, and his offer to resign was not related to a separate investigation into allegations that top police officials, including the president’s chief of staff, had been involved in a wiretap targeting the president. The eligibility dispute is a distinct issue, rooted in the documents he submitted when he stood for office.
For now, Gibran remains in office, and the immediate question is whether Prabowo will accept his offer or allow him to fight the court rulings. Either way, the episode has exposed the fragility of the political settlement that followed the 2024 election, and it has left Indonesia’s leadership facing its most serious internal crisis since Prabowo took office.
