Prabowo slams ‘Dark Indonesia’ protests, predicts country’s bright future as he defends ‘fat’ Cabinet

JAKARTA: Indonesia President Prabowo Subianto has hit back at recent “Dark Indonesia” protests in the country, depicting a bright future as he expressed confidence that the archipelago would become the world’s fourth-biggest economy in 2050.

Speaking on Tuesday (Feb 25) during the congress of the Democrat Party, part of Prabowo’s KIM Plus coalition, Prabowo said better days lie ahead for Indonesia’s economic future, citing a well-known multinational investment bank, as he slammed the demonstrations against his austerity measures and a potentially bleak future. 

“There is an economic and statistical prediction. Ladies and gentlemen, they say the number one (economy) will be China overtaking America. Number two is America. Number three is India. This is Goldman Sachs,” Prabowo said. 

“ Indonesia is number four … (in) 2050,” he added, referring to predictions made in 2022 by the world’s second-largest investment bank.

“That’s cool. Indonesia is above Germany. Ladies and gentlemen. Above Japan, above England, above France.”

However, some analysts said that the optimistic predictions were limited and described Prabowo’s recent statements as “tone-deaf”. 

“We can never predict what the future will be like, even in 2050 … As we know, in 2020 alone we faced COVID-19 and then there was the Russia-Ukraine war and nobody had predicted these,” economist Andry Satrio Nugroho from the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance told CNA.

He believes Goldman Sachs’ prediction was based on limited assumptions and it does not consider factors that are still unknown.

Indonesia’s economy is driven by domestic consumption and has a big population, but that does not mean the gross domestic product per capita would be big, he added. 

Also, Andry said Prabowo’s response showed a failure to read the young demonstrators and their concerns. 

“It seems the president is tone-deaf as shown by his statement that Indonesia is not dark. He should have answered (the students’ claims) by revealing what the government would want to do to get out of darkness, said Andry.