Academic: SSI Research Proves Bahlil Lahadalia is Key Supporter of Prabowo's Positive Image

A political analyst has highlighted research findings that position Golkar Party Chairman Bahlil Lahadalia as a major contributor to the positive public image of President Prabowo Subianto’s administration. The study, conducted by Sintesa Strategi Indonesia (SSI), analysed social media platforms and online news outlets between 5 June and 2 July 2026.

The research recorded a total of 231 million content impressions related to President Prabowo during the period. Of these, approximately 33 million impressions specifically mentioned ministers and the vice president within Prabowo’s inner circle. Bahlil Lahadalia recorded 8,213,780 impressions, placing him second only to Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka, who garnered 8,617,370 impressions.

However, Bahlil led in terms of positive sentiment, with 40.1 percent of conversations about him being positive and only 5.9 percent negative. In contrast, negative sentiment towards Gibran was significantly higher at 25.9 percent, with positive sentiment at 31.4 percent. The SSI research grouped the five most prominent figures—Gibran, Bahlil, Nanik/Deyang, Lieutenant Colonel Teddy, and Purbaya—into a ‘Tier 1 Dominant’ cluster, defined as those with over one million content exposures related to Prabowo.

Among the other figures, Lieutenant Colonel Teddy recorded 3,606,381 exposures with 24.1 percent positive and 15.2 percent negative sentiment, while Purbaya had 1,648,351 exposures with 12.2 percent positive and 9.5 percent negative sentiment. Nanik/Deyang attracted significant attention with 7,451,724 exposures, but 85.7 percent of the sentiment was neutral. Overall, public sentiment towards President Prabowo during the period stood at 41.5 percent positive, 44.7 percent neutral, and 13.8 percent negative.

Bustamin Wahid, a lecturer at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at Universitas Muhammadiyah Sorong, assessed the findings in the context of the government coalition’s dynamics. He noted that the data indicates Bahlil is relatively rarely the target of negative sentiment compared to other prominent figures. Wahid suggested this could be interpreted as a sign of solid support from coalition party cadres for the administration, though he cautioned that further study is needed to determine if this pattern will persist over the long term.