Observer: Comprehensive Economic Policy Adjustment Must Be Undertaken

Political observer Fernando Emas has cautioned President Prabowo Subianto’s administration about conditions that could potentially unfold in Indonesia. The warning centres on a scenario that must not be underestimated: the potential for a wave of mass protests capable of shaking government stability, described as ‘Reformasi 1998 Volume II’.

The 1998 Reformasi was one of the most monumental events in modern Indonesian political history. Triggered by an economic crisis that devastated the people’s purchasing power, coupled with accumulated anger over rampant injustice and corruption, the student and popular movement succeeded in ending 32 years of New Order rule.

‘I am not trying to frighten the Prabowo administration, but rather to give a warning based on real history, namely that the conditions which once triggered a social explosion like 1998 have the potential to recur if the government does not act immediately,’ Fernando Emas told reporters on Saturday, 13 June 2026.

Fernando Emas emphasised that the Reformasi 1998 Volume II scenario will not occur automatically. According to Fernando, such a reformation will only materialise if the government fails or is too late in undertaking improvements in the economic sector.

‘This means there is still a window of opportunity for President Prabowo to take concrete and measurable steps to prevent the accumulation of public anger from reaching an uncontrollable critical point,’ he asserted.

Fernando Emas also reminded that reactive and slow-moving leadership is a luxury President Prabowo can no longer afford given the current complex economic and social conditions. According to him, courage is needed to make policy breakthroughs, including, if necessary, replacing ministers deemed incapable of providing real solutions to the people’s economic problems.

‘I am giving this warning because behind it lies a bitter reality felt directly by millions of Indonesians every day. Economic policies that do not side with the common people are not merely statistical figures; they manifest in long queues at petrol stations, the steadily climbing prices of staple goods, swelling electricity bills, and increasingly inaccessible job opportunities,’ Fernando explained.

Moreover, he said, the prices of rice, cooking oil, and animal protein continue to experience upward pressure disproportionate to the real income growth of the lower-middle class, systematically eroding purchasing power.