Earlier this year, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto summoned some of the country’s top tycoons to his private residence in the lush hills just outside the capital Jakarta to seek their help with industrial development and create jobs.
The meeting, however, was more than that. In talks that lasted more than four hours until almost midnight, the president urged the five tycoons to share their wealth and do more to narrow the country’s inequality gap, according to people familiar with the discussions, which took place in February.
Prabowo’s message to tycoons, according to one of the people, was: “Indonesia is so big. We have to make everyone rich. Do not make it a small circle.”