Novali Panji Nugroho, Jakarta – A number of academics and activists in a civil society movement called Republic Conference highlighted the two years of administration under Prabowo Subianto and Gibran Rakabuming Raka. They held discussions day and night to evaluate the government's ineffective management since its inauguration on October 20, 2024.
The head of the 45 Laboratory (Lab45), Jaleswari Pramodhawardani, said Prabowo's administration lacks the necessary competence as stakeholders, especially in fulfilling social justice for all Indonesian people as mandated by the constitution. "We consider this government incompetent," she said while reading the Republic Conference report in Central Jakarta on Monday, October 19, 2026.
The Republic Conference summarized eight aspects in evaluating the Prabowo and Gibran government over these two years. First, they pointed out the collapse of public trust. In a recent Saiful Mujani Research Center survey, satisfaction with the head of state's performance plummeted by 30 percent from 81.2 percent in November 2025 to 51 percent in July 2026.
The Republic Conference also referenced the Tempo Data Science survey, which recorded public satisfaction with the bloated coalition pair. According to the survey, Prabowo-Gibran's satisfaction rate in August 2026 was only 37 percent. Additionally, Prabowo's current electability ranges from 23 to 32 percent.
In addition, the Republic Conference highlighted the government's tendency to circumvent constitutional decisions. For example, the Constitutional Court ruled in Decision 114/PUU-XXIII/2025 that active police officers cannot hold civil positions. Instead of implementing this final and binding court ruling, the government issued Police Regulation Number 10 of 2025, allowing active police officers to hold positions in 17 ministries and agencies.
Other aspects that received a red report during Prabowo-Gibran's two years of governance include freedom restrictions, weak legislative oversight, economic corporatism that impoverishes the population, the denial of women's roles, cuts to regional budgets, and the remilitarization of the country.
The Republic Conference also stated that the government is incompetent in dealing with natural disasters, most recently forest fires in several provinces. According to data collected by the Republic Conference, the area of burned forests increased by up to 80 percent from 2023 to August 2026.
Haze from these forest fires has crossed borders and affected activities in neighboring countries, such as Malaysia and Singapore. This contradicts Indonesia's foreign policy, which ratified the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreement on transboundary haze pollution in 2014.
"This report does not show random errors, but a coherent pattern throughout. Authority that arises from bending the rules, supervisory institutions are left paralyzed, and the people bear the consequences," said Jaleswari.
The Chairman of the Republic Conference Committee, Sudirman Said, said incompetence of today's government is not only about managerial issues. He claims that the state lacks competence in moral matters, resulting in policies that often fail to improve people's well-being.
Meanwhile, the Secretary-General of the Republic Conference Committee, Yanuar Nugroho, suspects that the government's policies are not only incompetent. He believes that policy-making is often not based on evidence due to greed. "I think today's government is a combination of the lust for power and incompetence that has caused the people to fall deep into difficulties," said the founder of the Nalar Institute.
In addition to the red report from the Republic Conference on two years of Prabowo-Gibran's government, the Shadow Cabinet, along with the Center for Economic and Law Studies, also provided assessments in a survey release. The Shadow Cabinet's research shows that both expert perceptions and the general public rate Prabowo and Gibran's performance below five on a scale of 10.
Celios Executive Director and Minister of Finance and Budget Management at Shadow Cabinet, Bhima Yudhistira, revealed that experts gave Prabowo a score of 2.8 out of 10 for his performance, while Gibran received a 2.2. Meanwhile, the general public rated Prabowo's performance 4.6 out of 10 and Gibran 4.9 out of 10. "So both have scores below five," said Bhima during an online survey presentation on Sunday, October 11, 2026.
The low evaluation scores align with expert respondents' perception of presidential leadership capacity. Bhima explained that 71 percent of 129 experts assessed the president's leadership ability as inadequate.
In his official statement, Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka said the red report on government performance from civil society will be used as evaluation material to improve government performance. Gibran emphasized that he appreciates every survey result, study, or criticism presented by society and independent institutions. "For me, all of this is a part of democracy and an evaluation material for the government to continue improving itself," said Gibran on Tuesday, October 13, 2026.
The eldest son of the seventh President, Joko Widodo, said the criticism directed at the government, including him, must be met with better work. "Both through evaluations and improvements in policies and working methods to ensure that the government's presence is increasingly felt by the community and addresses the issues faced by the community on the ground," Gibran stated.
Source: https://en.tempo.co/read/2121921/republic-conference-gives-prabowo-gibran-a-failing-grad