A source inside the coalition said Jokowi was keen to have Prabowo, who lost in a bitterly fought election in April, join his government to strengthen the administration’s nationalist credentials.

The former general, who won 44.5 per cent of the vote, was staunchly supported at the polls by Islamist groups seeking to turn the country into a caliphate. Prabowo has never backed the formation of an Islamic state, and has always taken pains to point out he is a nationalist who hails from a half-Christian family, but having Islamists campaigning for him unsettled many nationalists.

His party Gerindra garnered 12.57 per cent of the parliamentary vote to win 78 seats and now accounts for the third largest bloc in the legislature.

Speculation has been rife in the Indonesian media that Prabowo has been offered the post of defence minister, but sources in the coalition this week denied that claim.

“Jokowi is open to having Prabowo in the coalition as they want to strengthen nationalism in the country. They worry that if he is not embraced, he might fall prey to the influence of Islamists like Hizb ut-Tahrir and PKS,” a source said, referring to a radical and now-banned pan-Islamist group as well as the fellow Islam-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).

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Indonesia, a Muslim-majority country of 260 million, has in recent years seen a rising tide of Islamisation threaten its much-vaunted secular democracy.

In recent weeks students have protested across major cities over proposed changes to the country’s penal code that would restrict the rights of women and minorities – proposals supported by Islamist parties.

Gerindra’s director of foreign relations Irawan Ronodipuro said Prabowo had long been on good terms with former Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri, who leads Jokowi’s PDIP. They ran together in the 2009 presidential election with Megawati on the presidential ticket.

Irawan said Prabowo had conveyed to Widodo his ideas for a strong national defence policy, developing the energy sector and the need for self-sufficiency in food and water, but added that he had no idea whether the former general would be given a ministerial post.

On speculation that Prabowo was angling for the defence job, Irawan said: “I don’t know where this talk is coming from. The situation is very confusing.”

As to whether Gerindra would join the coalition, he said the party supported Widodo’s efforts to raise living standards but would criticise policies that did not benefit the people.

“We do wish him well for the sake of the people as we want the people to prosper. Looking at it though, it appears to be not going that way at the moment,” Irawan said.

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Airlangga Pribadi, a lecturer at Airlangga University in Surabaya, said if Prabowo were given the defence post, many members of Jokowi’s coalition would be very disappointed.

“The coalition partners see Prabowo as a figure from the Suharto regime,” Airlangga said.

While the military has seen its wings clipped since 1998, Jokowi has not shied away from giving former military men roles in his administration. Former general Luhut Pandjaitan, previously ambassador to Singapore, is currently the maritime minister.

The source in Widodo’s coalition said Prabowo had not himself asked for the post of defence chief.

“This request came from Gerindra members, not Prabowo. As you know, Gerindra has many retired generals in the party,” the source said.

Political expert Syamsuddin Haris of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences said the defence job was a key cabinet position under the constitution because in the event the president and vice-president became incapacitated, the country would be temporarily ruled by a “triumvirate comprising the home affairs minister, foreign minister and defence minister”.

He said the country would be better off with Prabowo outside the coalition to ensure a “significant opposition in parliament”.

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Airlangga agreed, saying checks and balances were needed between the executive and legislature.

“This could silence critical voices against the government,” Airlangga said.

A weak opposition in the legislature could see Indonesians increasingly taking to the streets to voice their grievances, he warned, “when in actual fact, the basic principle of a democracy is to move the voices from the street into the political realm of parliament”.

Syamsuddin said Prabowo would retain his links with the Islamist PKS regardless, as they had been working together as part of the opposition for the past five years.

But he expected Prabowo’s ties with the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir to fall by the wayside.

Irawan dismissed those suggestions, however, saying Prabowo “is his own person”.

“He is a nationalist and a Muslim, not an Islamist,” he said. “He has a broad spectrum [of associates and is] very knowledgeable. He is for the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia.”