From time to time Prabowo Subianto, Indonesia’s president, evinces(表现出，显示) magnanimity(宽宏大量) towards his critics. “Am I really an authoritarian?” he asked last year. “I don’t think so…Criticism is good. [We] must not be driven by anger or resentment.” At other times a harsher side emerges. “Foreign powers”, he fumed last June, “fund NGOs to sow discord among us. They claim to be upholders of democracy, human rights, freedom of the press, when in fact, those are their own versions.” For a thuggish(暴徒般的，凶残的) general who has refashioned himself as a cat-cuddling grandpa(爱猫的慈祥爷爷), a little ambiguity is inevitable. But Mr Prabowo’s temperament is so mercurial(反复无常的，善变的) that even his allies fear for Indonesia’s macroeconomic stability and for its democracy.
印尼总统普拉博沃·苏比安托偶尔会对批评者展现宽容。去年他问道：“我真的专制吗？我不这么认为……批评是好的，我们不应被愤怒或怨恨驱使。”但有时他会露出更严厉的一面。去年六月他怒斥：“外国势力资助非政府组织在我们中间挑拨离间。他们自称是民主、人权、新闻自由的捍卫者，实际上那只是他们自己的版本。”对于一个把自己重塑成爱猫祖父的暴虐将军来说，些许矛盾不可避免。但普拉博沃的性情如此反复无常，以至于连他的盟友都担心印尼的宏观经济稳定和民主。
Mr Prabowo is centralising power and, in keeping with(与……一致，符合) his long-professed disdain(蔑视，鄙视) for multiparty democracy, marginalising legislative opposition. He is spending beyond Indonesia’s means, installing close allies in senior economic posts and giving the armed forces a bigger role in public life. The result looks to some like an incipient(初期的，早期的) reversal of the reforms that have underpinned Indonesia’s stability since the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98. That crash drove tens of millions into poverty and initiated an era of political instability, Islamist terror attacks and separatist insurgencies. Similar upheaval(动荡，剧变) today would not only harm Indonesia’s 290m people, but also alarm neighbours such as Australia and Singapore, imperil exports of nickel and other commodities and undo 20 years of economic and political progress in the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country.
普拉博沃正在集中权力，并且与他一贯对多党民主的蔑视一致，他边缘化了立法反对派。他的支出超出了印尼的能力，将亲信安插在高级经济职位，并赋予军队在公共生活中更大的角色。在一些人看来，结果就像是1997-98年亚洲金融危机后支撑印尼稳定的改革开始逆转。那场危机使数千万人陷入贫困，并开启了一个政治不稳定、伊斯兰恐怖袭击和分离主义叛乱的时代。如今类似的动荡不仅会伤害印尼2.9亿人民，还会惊动澳大利亚和新加坡等邻国，危及镍和其他大宗商品的出口，并毁掉这个世界最大穆斯林国家20年的经济和政治进步。
A tidy Sumatra
苏门答腊整洁
Mr Prabowo’s most obvious departure from Indonesia’s recent norms has been in his lavish spending. He has launched two massive populist projects: a free-school-meals scheme, meant to tackle stunting(发育迟缓) among schoolchildren, and a network of 80,000 village-level agricultural co-operatives, meant to displace middlemen who bilk(诈骗，骗取) farmers. A conservative estimate(保守估计) suggests the two initiatives alone could cost at least 320trn rupiah ($18bn) this year, or 10% of budgeted revenue.
普拉博沃对印尼近年规范最明显的背离在于他大手笔的支出。他启动了两个大规模民粹项目：一个免费学校餐计划，旨在解决学童发育迟缓问题；以及一个由8万个村级农业合作社组成的网络，旨在取代欺诈农民的中间商。保守估计，仅这两项计划今年就可能花费至少320万亿印尼盾（180亿美元），占预算收入的10%。
Curve Bali
巴厘曲线
Borneo conservative
婆罗洲保守派
Always wanting Timor
总是想要帝汶
