Experts Urge Indonesia to Make People's Economy the Main Orientation
Legal and development observer Hardjuno Wiwoho has suggested that Indonesia needs to carry out a fundamental evaluation of its national development direction. This can be done by once again placing the people’s economy as the main orientation.
According to him, development cannot be adequately assessed merely by economic growth, investment, or the size of projects, but must be seen in terms of the extent to which development outcomes strengthen public welfare and self-reliance. Hardjuno said Indonesia can draw lessons from China’s long development journey.
The convergence of three major political moments in China this year—the 100th anniversary of Jiang Zemin’s birth, the passing of former Premier Zhu Rongji, and the Fifth Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China—demonstrates the importance of re-examining a nation’s development trajectory and direction.
“What we need to learn is not China’s political system, but the courage of a nation to continually evaluate its development direction. Indonesia must also dare to ask: where is the development we have been pursuing actually meant to take the people?” Hardjuno said in a press release in Jakarta on Wednesday (19/8/2026).
Hardjuno noted that one of Indonesia’s current problems is that development is too easily translated into growth in economic figures. Yet, he continued, the constitution has provided a clear direction that the national economy must be organised on the basis of economic democracy with the aim of achieving the greatest possible prosperity for the people.
“Growth is important, investment is important, industrialisation is also important. But all of these are tools. The ultimate goal is for the people to become more productive, to own assets, to obtain decent employment, and to have the opportunity to move up in class. If the economy grows but wealth becomes increasingly concentrated, we must dare to say that something needs to be corrected in our development direction,” Hardjuno said.