Prabowo Highlights 'Crab Mentality' Among Indonesians: Happy to See Colleagues Suffer
President Prabowo Subianto has highlighted the enduring culture of bringing one another down within Indonesian society.
According to him, the Indonesian nation is still haunted by what is known as “crab mentality” — the tendency to pull others down just as they begin to achieve success.
Prabowo made the remarks while inaugurating the B50 biodiesel programme at the Rest Area KM 57 Cikampek, Karawang Regency, West Java, on Thursday, 9 July 2026.
He explained that this mindset is one of the obstacles to the nation’s progress, as it makes it difficult for society to appreciate the achievements of its own people.
“It is said that we are among the crab nations. When a crab’s companion has climbed to the top, the crabs below pull it back down,” Prabowo said.
He then continued the analogy, describing how this attitude of mutual undermining repeats itself endlessly.
“When another crab tries to climb up, the other crabs pull it down again. That is called delighting in a friend’s hardship and finding it hard to see a friend happy,” he said.
In Prabowo’s view, this phenomenon occurs not only within society but is also still visible among leaders who ought to set an example.
“There is one shortcoming among the leaders of the Indonesian nation. Leaders are the most educated among us, yet this flaw exists within our nation,” he revealed.
Prabowo suspects that this character trait is rooted in Indonesia’s long experience under colonial rule, which gave rise to an inferiority complex as a nation.
“Perhaps this is because we were colonised for too long by the Dutch, by foreigners, so what emerged was a sense of inferiority, a sense of low self-worth,” he said.
For that reason, Prabowo called on all of society to change this mindset and begin appreciating every achievement attained by the nation itself.
“Let us correct it. When it comes to our nation’s accomplishments, we too often delight in seeing our own people struggle,” he asserted.
He stressed that the culture of envy, spite and the desire to humiliate one another must be abandoned if Indonesia is to become an advanced and respected nation.
“I do not know, perhaps you have all experienced it too. Feelings of envy, spite, the urge to bring people down, to humiliate one’s own brothers, one’s own colleagues, one’s own nation,” Prabowo concluded.