Prabowo's Approval Rating Drops, Andi Widjajanto Explains the Causes
Yogyakarta, VIVA – The Head of PDIP’s Research Agency, Andi Widjastanto, believes that the weakening of democratic bastions is not being achieved through military deployment or the forced seizure of power, but is instead being legalised through formal legal instruments, or ‘autocratic legalism’.
This was stated by Andi while serving as a keynote panelist during Session I: Anatomy of Democratic Backsliding in Southeast Asia at the CALD Conference 2026, held at the Royal Ambarrukmo Hotel, Yogyakarta, on Friday, 4 September 2026.
“Look at the Indonesian path: the anti-corruption agency (KPK) was weakened through the 2019 law revision, the Constitutional Court issued its own procedures for nominations in 2023, and the Military Law was revised in 2025 through normal legislation. Elections remain on time, citizen participation is high, and the free press continues to publish. No power was seized by force; everything was legalised. The law is no longer a constraint, but a tool of power,” Andi asserted.
Andi also highlighted the unconditional economic conditions in Southeast Asia and Indonesia’s very low tax ratio, which stands at approximately 10 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). According to him, this condition makes the government feel there is no need to listen to the aspirations of citizens.
During the Q&A session, moderated by Trinity Pham, Strategic Advisor for Viet Tan Vietnam, Andi revealed the dynamics of the political coalition following the 2024 Election, which he described as highly fluid and enigmatic.
According to Andi, although a massive coalition has formed with the PDIP serving as the sole opposition, this accumulation of significant power has instead resulted in an anomaly in the eyes of the public.
“There is a great puzzle. From October 2024 to August 2025, President Prabowo’s approval rating was very high, above 80 per cent. However, in surveys from July to August 2026, that satisfaction level plummeted sharply to a low of 28 per cent. This is the sharpest decline for an incumbent president in their first two years,” said Andi.
Andi suggested that this drastic decline was triggered by intense public opposition to several of the government’s priority programmes, such as the free lunch programme and the Red and White Village Cooperative (Koperasi Desa Merah Putih).
Andi then outlined the emergence of two “new allies” that he believes are surprising in maintaining democratic resilience in Indonesia.
The first ally is the global market. Andi highlighted the phenomenon of declining trust indices by agencies such as MSCI, FTSE, Moody’s, and S&P, resulting from a loss of investor confidence in the government’s economic decision-making processes.