Former army general and likely presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto has been widely ridiculed following a campaign speech posted on his Gerindra Party official Facebook page on March 18 in which he made the claim that ‘...in other countries they have made studies where the Republic of Indonesia has been declared no more in 2030’.

It turned out however that the study referred to by Prabowo was in fact a fictional sci-fi techno war thriller by authors August Cole and P. W. Singer titled Ghost Fleet. Prabowo has since admitted that he based his claims the novel but defended it saying the book was based on ‘scientific studies’ done by the authors.

News of Prabowo’s gaff even got the attention of Singer who tweeted: ‘There have been many twists and turns and unexpected changes in the experience of this book, but this perhaps takes the cake...’.