Solo – President Prabowo Subianto has again touched on the wave of demonstrations in early 2025. He accused the actions of being fabricated by those who wanted make Indonesia fail.
This was conveyed by Prabowo in a speech when closing the 2025 Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) Congress at the Edutorium at the University of Muhammadiyah in Surakarta (UMS) on Sunday evening July 20.
"There were people who acted like smart people but what was disseminated was pessimism", Prabowo said.
The President mentioned several waves of demonstrations that occurred earlier this year which took up the jargon "Indonesia Gelap" (Dark Indonesia) and "Kabur aja dulu" (Just run away). "[Yes], you just run away. Indeed it's [not] easy there overseas where you, you're being chased there?", said Prabowo.
He accused the protest actions of being deliberately designed to disrupt stability in the country thereby hampering the pace of economic growth. "By who? By those who want Indonesia to always be in turmoil, Indonesia to always be poor. Yes, it was the corruptors who funded those demonstrations", said Prabowo.
The President gave assurances that the current state of the Indonesian economy is getting better, not darker as articulated by these actions. "Sorry, yeah, Indonesia is bright. Indonesia's future is bright", he said.
"I see the numbers, extraordinary bright. All we have to do is manage it or not, we just have to be brave or not", he continued.
Prabowo attended the closing of the PSI Congress which was held in the Central Java city of Solo 19-20 July. During the congress, the son of the seventh president of the Republic of Indonesia (former president Joko "Jokowi" Widodo), Kaesang Pangarep, was again elected as the general chairperson of PSI through the mechanism of a direct election.
Pangarep in his remarks to the congress stressed that the PSI would fully support the programs of President Prabowo and Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka's (his older brother) government, including the Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) and People's Schools programs.
According to Pangarep, the two programs were designed to complement each other to create a superior generation. "If children are hungry, they cannot study. If they don't go to school, they don't have a future", Pangarep said in response to criticism over the MBG program. (syd/fea)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Prabowo Sindir Demonstrasi Awal 2025 Dibiayai Koruptor".]