October 24, 2025
JAKARTA – President Prabowo Subianto’s first year in office was marked by increasing military involvement in the public space and heavy reliance on top-down policymaking that undermine public participation and accountability in implementing his programs and policies, analysts have said.
During an event on Wednesday, researchers from Jakarta-based think tank the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) presented their assessment of the administration of Prabowo and Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka one year after they took office in October 2024.
Growing militarism was a common criticism of the administration in the past year, which exposed the government’s normalization of increased military roles in civilian affairs, CSIS politics and social change researcher Nicky Fahrizal said.
He noted the military’s presence in some of the President’s programs, such as the food estate initiative and free nutritious meal program.
The rising role of the military in civilian affairs became evident after the massive restructuring within the Indonesian Military (TNI) in August, when Prabowo established six new Army regional commands (Kodam), 14 Navy regional commands (Kodamal) and three Air Force regional commands (Kodamau). The President also established dozens of territorial development brigades and battalions.
“But such policies were rushed, […] showing declining meaningful public participation,” Nicky said.
Those who bear the consequences of the military presence in the country include communities that are deemed vulnerable, the researchers said, including those who live in Papua, where years of armed conflict between Indonesian security forces and Papuan separatists has taken place.
One year on, Prabowo has continued to weigh in on deploying military forces to resolve decades-long conflict, sidelining local dialogues and other peaceful mechanisms, said CSIS senior researcher Vidhyandika Perkasa.
He added that physical development would not cure the conflict in Papua, while increased military operations would only worsen social frictions and rights violations. Prabowo, Vidhyandika went on to say, has so far repeated past mistakes by failing to address the root causes of the conflict.
“Don’t focus solely on physical development,” he said at Wednesday’s event, “because the root problem lies in political trust and participation.”
Top-down dominance
Prabowo’s first year as Indonesia’s president also saw growing central government dominance in implementing programs with limited participation from either local administrations or the public.
CSIS deputy executive director for operations Medelina K. Hendytio pointed out the brouhaha surrounding Prabowo’s flagship programs, such as the free nutritious meal program or the Sekolah Rakyat (community schools) initiative, through which the government offers free boarding schools to children with parents from the poorest 10-percent of households in the country.
The goals of such initiatives are commendable, but Medelina argued the programs focus solely on achieving large and quantified targets set by the central government, without considering infrastructure and budget constraints faced by local officials.
“With such top-down policies, the gap between what has been planned by the central government and what has been implemented in the regions is too large,” she said.
The free meals program was first rolled out in January and has reached at least 36 million schoolchildren, pregnant women and nursing mothers nationwide with more than 1 billion portions served. The government is targeting 83 million beneficiaries by year-end.
However, the rollout has been marred with operational flaws, leading to thousands of recipients suffering from food poisoning across the archipelago. Public pressure for the government to at least suspend the program for thorough evaluation has been growing, but Prabowo’s administration insists on continuing the free meal distribution.
The central government’s dominance in controlling major state projects is coupled with ongoing power consolidation under Prabowo, which is primarily aimed at supporting his policy initiatives, CSIS senior researcher Arya Fernandes said.
Prabowo’s ruling coalition holds over 80 percent of the seats in the House of Representatives, with only the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) standing outside the grouping. The President has also assembled a cabinet with more than 100 members, making it the largest in decades.