President Prabowo Subianto has now led Indonesia for 100 days. We note that in this time National Strategic Projects (PSN) have begun to be intensified by using the bureaucratic superstructure in the form of ministers with military backgrounds and the deployment of the state defence and security apparatus (the Army and police) to launch the process of land clearing and provide project security, the ministries have been fattened up, and value added tax (VAT) has been increased.
This has been done in order to realise Prabowo's ambitious program to increase economic growth to 8 percent. There are at least five serious problems with this and it will lead to the destruction of democracy, the rule of law and the neglect of human rights.
1. PSNs which have begun to be intensified by mobilising the military. This mobilisation has been carried out in the free lunch program (MBG), the food estate project in Papua, and also the Rempang Eco City project in Batam. In the future it is predicted that the involvement of the Army will also be seen in the planned 20 million hectare deforestation project for palm oil.
2. The blowout in the state budget (APBN) caused by the swelling of the cabinet and the free lunch program. Data from the Finance Book II and the 2025 APBN Fiscal Year shows that employee expenditure is set to reach 521.4 trillion rupiah, greater than the previous year which was 460.8 trillion rupiah. This shows that the government is unable to cope with the increase in the state financial burden.
3. The placement of people with military backgrounds in strategic ministerial posts to optimise the repression and dominance of the TNI (Indonesian Military) in national strategic projects. They include: Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure and Development); M Iftitah Suryanagara (Minister of Transmigration); Leodwik F. Paulus (Deputy Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs); Ossy Dermawan (Deputy Minister for Agrarian Affairs and Special Planning/Deputy Head of the National Land Agency); and Diaz Hendropriyono (Deputy Minister of the Environment/Deputy Head of the Environmental Control Agency).
4. The increase in VAT by playing with the law and an amnesty for corruptors on the one hand, and at the same time weakening anti-corruption fighters. We see that the new policies regarding the increase in VAT have the potential to cause legal uncertainty that will actually affect the uncertainty of basic commodity prices in the market. At the same time, an amnesty for corruptors will not be able to recover state losses, nor will a tax amnesty for entrepreneurs who commit embezzlement.
5. Systematic efforts to bury the settlement of past gross human rights violations through a judicial process. This can be seen in the statement by Coordinating Minister for Law, Human Rights, Immigration and Correctional Institutions Yusril Ihza Mahendra who said that the May 1998 tragedy was not a gross human rights violation, giving money to victims of the 1997-98 abductions of pro-democracy activists by Prabowo that was facilitated through former rights activists Mugiyanto Sipin and his close aides Sufmi Dasco Ahmad and Habiburokhman, and the Palace's request to the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) not to raise two outstanding cases of past human rights violations, the 2001 Bumi Flora massacre in Aceh and the assassination of renowned human rights defender Munir Said Thalib, at the 100 days of government plenary meeting.
The YLBHI believes that these five problems prove that Prabowo is trying to step on democracy as an effort to ensure the stability of his power over the next five years by bringing the military wagon into civilian affairs. In the future, the people will be faced with state actors directly in structural conflicts.
The YLBHI's notes on the first 100 days of the Prabowo regime can also be downloaded via this link: https://ylbhi.or.id/bibliografi/laporan/melangkah-mundur-untuk-menghancurkan-demokrasi-catatan-100-hari-kekuasaan-rezim-prabowo/
Jakarta, January 20, 2025
YLBHI management
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the statement was "Melangkah Mundur untuk Menghancurkan Demokrasi – Catatan 100 Hari Kekuasaan Rezim Prabowo".]
