Prabowo Affirms Commitment to Enforce Article 33 of 1945 Constitution

President Prabowo Subianto has affirmed the government’s commitment to implementing the mandate of Article 33 of the 1945 Constitution to overcome economic inequality in society. “I am very confident, if we implement Article 33, with wisdom and prudence, but we must implement it, I believe Indonesia will rise quickly,” President Prabowo said in his speech at the 18th National Conference of the Indonesian Young Entrepreneurs Association (HIPMI) in Bandar Lampung on Wednesday, according to a statement from the Presidential Secretariat. The President stated that the national economic blueprint designed by the nation’s founders has deviated from its intended path. According to Prabowo, the current system instead disproportionately enlarges the conglomerate sector. In his view, this inequality is clearly visible in the capital financing structure for small business actors. The President assessed that there is an imbalance in the setting of interest rates within the banking sector. He compared how small communities accessing super micro credit must bear a burden of interest up to 24 percent, whilst large entrepreneurs borrowing funds from state-owned banks are only charged nine to ten percent interest. President Prabowo demanded that regulations concerning the economy, which are structured as a joint effort based on the principle of kinship, should not merely be empty rhetoric. This affirmation was directed at all domestic economic actors. In accordance with the Constitution’s mandate, branches of production that are important for the state and control the livelihood of the people must be controlled by the state. This includes the management of the earth, water, and the natural resources contained within them. The President added that all the wealth of the archipelago must be managed independently so that its yields can be used for the greatest possible prosperity of the Indonesian people.