Managing Energy, Maintaining Public Trust
Energy is one of the most tangible forms of the state’s presence in people’s lives. It is present when lights turn on in homes, when farmers irrigate their fields, when fishermen go out to sea, when children study at night, and when factories and hospitals operate without disruption. Therefore, energy must not be understood merely as a commodity, a project, or a figure on an economic balance sheet. Energy is an infrastructure of trust. When energy is available, affordable, and reliable, the people trust that the state is working. Conversely, when energy is scarce, expensive, or uncertain, public trust is shaken.
In national development, trust is capital no less important than budgets, technology, or investment. The state may have grand plans, comprehensive policy documents, and ambitious targets, but these only hold meaning if the people feel the results. In the energy sector, these results are concrete: electricity must flow, fuel must be available, prices must be kept from crushing household budgets, industry must receive sufficient supply, and remote villages must be connected to the grid. The entire energy transition process must be explained in a language the people can understand.
Indonesia is at a critical juncture. On one hand, it possesses immense natural resources, including oil, gas, coal, nickel, copper, bauxite, tin, geothermal, hydro, solar, wind, bioenergy, and marine energy potential. On the other, the world is changing rapidly. Geopolitical energy uncertainty is growing, global supply chains are fragmenting, and critical minerals are being contested by major powers. Technologies such as energy storage, electric vehicles, data centres, artificial intelligence, and green industries all demand ever larger and more reliable energy supplies. In this context, energy is no longer a sectoral issue; it is the foundation of national competitiveness.
Consequently, Indonesia’s energy agenda cannot be viewed as merely the business of a technical ministry. Energy intersects directly with food security, industry, transportation, investment, defence, the environment, employment, and equitable development. If energy is insecure, the cost of living rises. If electricity is unreliable, industry suffers. If fuel supply is not maintained, public mobility is hampered. If the energy transition is mismanaged, fiscal and social burdens can increase. Conversely, if energy is managed correctly, it can become a new engine of growth, a source of new jobs, and the foundation of national economic self-reliance.
The administration of President Prabowo Subianto has placed energy self-sufficiency as a strategic agenda. This is a sound choice, as a large nation must not be overly dependent on external supplies for its basic needs. However, energy self-sufficiency should not be narrowly defined as merely the ability to produce energy domestically. It must be understood more broadly as the state’s capacity to secure supply, manage risks, control prices, strengthen industry, build technology, and ensure that economic benefits return to the people.
In this context, energy security must become the primary language of policy. Energy security is not solely about oil reserves or generation capacity; it encompasses four fundamental pillars: availability, affordability, reliability, and sustainability. Energy must be available when needed, its price must remain reasonable for the public and industry, the system must be reliable in the face of disruptions, and its long-term direction must align with environmental needs and economic transformation. These four pillars must not be pitted against one another. The art of energy governance lies in maintaining a balance among them all.
The energy transition, for instance, must be pursued with full awareness of Indonesia’s unique characteristics. We certainly need to accelerate clean energy and unlock the vast potential of solar, wind, geothermal, hydro, and energy storage. But the transition must not become mere international jargon. It must be Indonesia’s pathway to strengthening domestic industry, creating jobs, reducing import dependency, and expanding energy access. A successful transition produces not only new power plants but also new ecosystems of manufacturing, financing, research, vocational training, and entrepreneurship.
At the same time, we must be honest about the current realities of the national energy system. Coal still plays a role in securing electricity supply. Gas holds an important position as a transition fuel and industrial feedstock. Oil and gas remain critical for mobility and state revenue. LPG is still a basic household necessity. Therefore, Indonesia’s energy transition must be realistic, not reactive. It must move forward without sacrificing system reliability, public purchasing power, or investment certainty. What is needed is not merely the courage to set targets, but the ability to manage the sequence of steps.
This is where public trust becomes critically important. The people need to understand why subsidies must be restructured, why the electricity system must be strengthened, why renewable energy must be accelerated, why mineral downstreaming is important, and why gas, coal, and clean energy must be placed within a single grand design. Without good communication, energy policy is easily misunderstood as a burden. Yet, when explained honestly, energy is the state’s investment in the people’s future. Energy policy communication cannot rely solely on technical language. Not everyone understands terms like energy mix, reserve margin, transmission, interconnection, economic tariff, or carbon pricing. But everyone understands what it means when the lights go out, when fuel prices rise, when LPG is hard to find, when production costs soar, and when jobs disappear.