Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto began his tenure last October with characteristic bluster and bullishness about Indonesia’s potential and his own abilities to transform the country. Prabowo vowed to fulfill his campaign promises of significantly expanding a national free meal program and elevating Indonesia’s profile in regional and global politics, the latter pledge a reflection of his much deeper interest in foreign policy than his predecessor, former President Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi.
But less than six months into his five-year term as president, Prabowo already faces a mountain of challenges. He has responded critically to recent mass street protests that poked holes in some of his economic plans. He has built a massively bloated Cabinet, while doing little to prevent potential corruption. And even on foreign affairs, ostensibly his specialty, Prabowo has seemed unable to develop coherent positions, sometimes seemingly pursuing contradictory plans in the same overseas trip.
Budget Turmoil
Several months ago, with no warning to his own economic advisers and without providing a legal or constitutional rationale for his actions, Prabowo announced he would be making massive cuts to the national budget for 2025 that will reduce Indonesia’s planned spending by 8.5 percent. The measures include significant reductions in state budget transfers to regional governments that depend heavily on state funds, especially in poorer parts of the country. Prabowo has also slashed the budgets of state agencies and ministries, a move highly unpopular in Jakarta and many other cities, where these funds represent a major contribution to the local economy in such a bureaucratic country. Those cuts have hit some particularly vital ministries hard, including those dealing with children’s welfare, public infrastructure and natural disasters, which are extremely common in Indonesia.