Jakarta – President-elect for the period 2024-2029, Prabowo Subianto, attended the National Coordination Meeting (Rakornas) of the PAN party in Jakarta on Thursday (9/5). During the event, he shared the significance of the numbers 8 and 13, which frequently appear in his life.

‘Today is a good day, if you look at the numbers. Believe it or not, but there are always numbers that appear in our lives. For me, the numbers 8 and 13 always show up,’ said Prabowo.

Prabowo continued, recalling a time when he was a captain and many soldiers were given codes. Codes often used Sanskrit because many soldiers were Javanese at the time.

‘If you have a Javanese commander about to start an operation, the operation’s name might be something like Operation Parikesit or Operation Arjuna, and even Operation Pandawa. The codes were chosen similarly, names like Gatotkoco or task force Bima,’ Prabowo revealed.

He went on to describe how he was once commanded by a Batak officer named Luhut Pandjaitan, who wanted to change the codes to numbers.

‘Luhut said, “Wo, what’s this? An army always using the Javanese language. Let’s change it, now the codes will use numbers. Ready, Commander!”‘ Prabowo reminisced about that moment.

At that time, Prabowo was assigned the code number 08, ‘You’re 08, I’m 09, you’re my deputy. From captain until general and retirement up to now, president-elect, I’ve been called 08 continuously,’ Prabowo imitated Luhut, drawing laughter from the guests.

Now, Prabowo said he finally understands that his strength comes from the number 08, which led to him being elected as the 8th President of Indonesia.

‘Imagine if back then he (Luhut) had said, “Wo, you’re 07.” Maybe I would have become the 7th president,’ Prabowo added, again greeted by laughter from the audience.

Prabowo expressed gratitude for being elected the 8th president as it allowed him to learn a lot from his predecessors.

Besides the number 8, Prabowo considers another number special, the number 13.

‘I found that the number 13 is also a positive number for me. So, when I was about to be inaugurated as the commander of Battalion 328, the night before, I entered the Danyon’s office and counted the photos on the wall; there were 12 photos, meaning the commander before me was the 12th, wow, I am the 13th commander,’ shared Prabowo.

From this, Prabowo deduced that the battalion number 328, when added together, totals 13.”

“This means I am the 13th commander from Battalion 13, and when you add these numbers together, it makes 26, which sums up again to the number 8. So, my morale boosted, I was confident in my success as Danyon. And notably, when the General Election Commission announced my winning percentage in real accounts, it was 58.58 percent, which also adds up—5 and 8—to 13,” said Prabowo, met with roaring applause.