Banking Roadmap and Prabowonomics in a Critical Communication Frame

Jakarta - I am always wary whenever economic growth figures and policy roadmaps are released simultaneously in a press conference full of optimistic smiles, for it is there that communication ceases to be mere information and begins to function as an instrument of power legitimation.

Statistics Indonesia (BPS) recorded that the Indonesian economy grew 5.29 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2026, the highest achievement since the second quarter of 2022, while the poverty rate fell to 8.07 per cent, the lowest level in recorded history.

At the same time, the Financial Services Authority (OJK) is preparing an update to the Indonesian Banking Development Roadmap towards 2030, continuing from the RP2I 2020-2025, whose four pillars include strengthening structure, accelerating digital transformation, enhancing the role of banking in the economy, and strengthening regulation and supervision.

For me, a far more important question than simply trusting these figures is: what kind of text and narrative is actually being constructed behind them, and who benefits most from the way this message is delivered to the public?

The Stage of Legitimation

Jürgen Habermas (1984) strictly distinguishes between communicative action, which is oriented towards mutual understanding through equal dialogue, and strategic action, which uses communication merely as a tool to achieve the goals of those in power.

I am not accusing the growth figures of being false, for BPS and OJK data indeed show a real positive trend, including double-digit credit growth and solid capitalisation. However, the way these positive figures are assembled into a single narrative of success, without room for critical voices to also frame the meaning, is precisely what Habermas would call the shrinking of the public sphere into a one-sided stage of legitimation.

Hegemonic Text

Antonio Gramsci (1971) taught that the most effective power is not power that coerces, but power that succeeds in making the interests of the dominant group appear as the natural and indisputable common interest.