Zahab Wibowus

Zahab Wibowus (/zə'hɑːb wᵻ'boʊwəs/ zə- hahb  wi- boh -wəss, born Zahab Imam Wibowo, 9 June 1994) is a former Craftian politician who served as the 23rd Prime Minister of Craftia from 2058 to 2061. He was Craftia's first Prime Minister of Indonesian heritage and sixth Prime Minister of non-European heritage.

Born into a working class family and raised in the outer suburbs of Notchropolis, Wibowus first entered politics as the Liberal MP for the Division of Phillipson in rural Jebsten, at the 2034 federal election. He served in various ministerial positions throughout the Abbott Government's decade in power from 2040 to 2050, including Education, Health, and Science and Technology. After the events of the 2050 Craftian constitutional crisis unfolded, Wibowus defected to the National United Party in an incident known as the Liberal–United split of 2050 (although Wibowus switched parties in January 2051). Wibowus then moved to the United Party backbench before becoming the Shadow Minister for Defence after the 2055 election, where the NUP regained Official Opposition status. Although United had been leading the opinion polls for a majority of the 2055–2058 parliament, Leader Con Wang's polling had dropped considerably by mid-2058, and a statutory election was to be held by September. With the backing of several frontbenchers and despite being 64 years old at the time, Wibowus launched a leadership challenge in August. Wang resigned and Wibowus was appointed leader unopposed. Polling for the NUP rose dramatically and United was swept into power at the 2058 election, heavily defeating Mel Queanbeyan's Craftian Conservative Party government on a 14% swing.

The Wibowus Government was characterised by tensions with the opposition Liberal Party, which voted against all of the government's bills in Parliament as long as Wibowus remained the leader of the NUP. United was in fact forced to form a coalition with the left-wing Craftian Greens due to the Liberals refusing to sign any coalition deal involving Wibowus. As Prime Minister, Wibowus embarked on a more Keynesian and social democratic approach to the economy, in contrast with predecessor Mel Queanbeyan. With the global economy in decline by the end of the 2050s, the Wibowus Government provided economic stimulus packages to combat the ensuing financial crisis, largely saving Craftia from a highly damaging recession. Budget deficits increased significantly during his term as a result. Wibowus also reformed the national parks program (under the influence of the Greens), introduced further taxes on corporations to curb carbon emissions and significantly increased refugee and immigrant quotas. Critics deride his government for running the country into a large deficit and for failing to assist in efforts in the escalating conflict in North Tendos. Under the leadership of Wibowus, the United Party shifted towards the left after two decades of a more centrist ideology.

At the 2061 federal election, the United Government was successfully re-elected with a small swing towards it, but in a shock result Wibowus lost his own seat of Bonnells, which was lost to the Liberals. Wibowus, then aged 67, decided not to re-enter parliament in a by-election, instead choosing to retire from politics, and was succeeded as Prime Minister and Leader of the United Party by his deputy Isaac Gray.