Prabowo Addresses Ministry 'Deep State': No Untouchable Bureaucrats

President Prabowo Subianto has highlighted the issue of lack of synchronisation between ministries and agencies (K/L). According to Prabowo, one of the causes is the existence of bureaucrats who wield excessive power within their institutions.

Prabowo shared these views during a dialogue with senior journalists and experts at Padepokan Garuda Yaksa, Hambalang, Bogor Regency, on Sunday (6/9/2026).

During the session, Prabowo discussed his vision for establishing the University of the Republic of Indonesia (URI), which would oversee the National Institute of Public Administration (LAN). This initiative aims to emulate France’s Ecole Nationale d’administration (ENA) to produce strong administrators.

He noted that Indonesia’s first President, Soekarno, shared a similar vision by establishing the LAN. However, he observed that the LAN is currently perceived merely as a formality for advancing the careers of civil servants.

“I intend to fix this,” he said.

Prabowo also expressed interest in emulating Turkey’s model of having a specialised academy for Governors. Once the URI is established, it is hoped that governors, regents, and even directors-general will undergo rigorous training before assuming office, though this remains in the planning stages.

Through these measures, Prabowo hopes to eliminate ‘untouchable’ bureaucrats who act like ‘little kings,’ which leads to institutional desynchronisation.

“And I say we must be brave, in the sense that there must be no untouchable bureaucrats,” Prabowo asserted.

“In the past, there were instances where certain directors-general (dirjen) could not be touched, perhaps because they were aligned with powerful ministers. These are the directors-general we refer to as the ‘deep state’—a bureaucracy that refuses to be regulated, acting as little kings,” said Prabowo.

According to Prabowo, these bureaucrats are aware that political leaders only serve five-year terms, whereas civil servants remain in their ministries for much longer. Consequently, they possess deep knowledge of the inner workings and loopholes used to seek personal gain.

“This does not apply to everyone, but in my experience, what you say is true: the lack of synchronisation between agencies occurs because they feel like kings. That is a reality,” he remarked.

He even recounted complaining about such lack of synchronisation to the 7th President, Joko Widodo, during his tenure as Minister of Defence. He noted an instance where a minister refused to meet him despite formal correspondence.

“I once complained to Mr Jokowi—he was President, I was Minister. I told the President, ‘I requested time to meet this minister, and even after three days, I could not meet him.’ I wrote a formal letter to that minister, and he only replied a year later, from Jakarta to Jakarta,” he recounted.

“The US Secretary of Defense writes to me [regarding such matters]. I am sharing this without naming names, but you are right; that is our problem. We must be brave enough to admit that this is our difficulty,” he added.