Sultan Abdurrahman, Jakarta - The Shadow Cabinet, a civil society movement that scrutinizes President Prabowo Subianto's administration by appointing shadow ministers, issued several critiques regarding the president's state address. According to Bhima Yudhistira, the Shadow Cabinet's Minister of Finance and Budget Governance, the speech was unrealistic.
President Prabowo delivered his address before the House of Representatives (DPR) on August 14, 2026. During the session, Prabowo presented an overview of the 2027 Draft State Budget (RAPBN) alongside its financial notes.
Bhima, an economist at the Center of Economic and Law Studies (Celios), highlighted several aspects of Prabowo's address that he viewed as unsubstantiated. "The macroeconomic assumptions in the 2027 State Budget are overly optimistic, but they don't address existing problems or needs," he stated in a written release on Saturday, August 15, 2026.
Prabowo, Bhima noted, continues to push growth as the solution for economic problems. This is reflected, for instance, in the 6 percent economic growth target set for 2027.
Prabowo's speech asserted that high economic growth would automatically generate jobs. "However, analysis from the Shadow Cabinet actually shows a decline in the quality of economic growth," he said.
According to Bhima, while every 1 percent of economic expansion previously absorbed between 400,000 and 500,000 workers, that capacity has continued to shrink in 2025 and 2026. "Currently, 1 percent of economic growth only creates around 340,000 jobs," he noted.
Bhima stressed that this trend demonstrates how relying solely on economic growth could lead Indonesia toward a contraction in employment opportunities. This is because investments touted as attractive for industrial downstreaming tend to be far more capital-intensive than labor-intensive.
Furthermore, Bhima asserted that Prabowo's remarks regarding the energy transition were similarly out of touch with reality. "There is something missing," he said.
According to Bhima, there is a discrepancy between the ambition of 100 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy capacity and the current projection of around 30 GW by the end of this year. Verbatim, the speech states that 33 GW of renewable energy will be achieved by the end of 2026, leaving only four months to reach that milestone.
Bhima added that even if framed as a 2027 target, this remains an unrealistic challenge. "Meanwhile, there is no explanation whatsoever of how this renewable energy will replace the coal-fired power plants currently causing an electricity oversupply in Java and Bali," he said.
Finally, Bhima observed that the President made no reference to the impact of the El Nino climate phenomenon. "This is an issue that wasn't even addressed in the speech," he said.
In fact, Bhima contended that economic expansion would likely fail to hit 6 percent in 2027 if El Nino mitigation is ignored. Indeed, he warned that unmitigated impacts could push economic growth down below 5 percent.
President Prabowo delivered two addresses before parliament on Friday, August 14, 2026. His first speech, presented at the MPR Annual Session, covered performance reports of state institutions while serving as the official state address for the 81st anniversary of Indonesian independence.
His second speech, delivered during the DPR Plenary Session, focused on introducing the 2027 Draft State Budget (RAPBN) alongside its financial notes. The Gerindra Party chief patron delivered the introductory statement outlining the fiscal plan prepared by his administration.
Source: https://en.tempo.co/read/2117573/shadow-cabinet-calls-prabowos-speech-overly-optimisti