President Prabowo Highlights Low Teacher Salaries Amid Economic Leakages
President Prabowo Subianto has highlighted the issue of low teacher salaries while revealing the existence of national economic leakages that have caused Indonesia’s wealth to flow abroad for years.
“We understand, the entire nation understands that our teachers’ salaries are insufficient, we understand that our job opportunities are lacking, we understand that extreme poverty still exists, we understand all these problems,” Prabowo said while chairing a Plenary Cabinet Session at the State Palace in Jakarta on Monday.
The President stated that these various issues are challenges the government must resolve. According to him, the mandate given by the people to the government aims to confront and find solutions to these problems. Prabowo also admitted he only realised the magnitude of the issues faced after leading the government.
According to the President, one of the fundamental problems Indonesia faces is the occurrence of large-scale economic leakages through various practices detrimental to the state. This has resulted in the nation and state not receiving the benefits they should rightfully possess based on Indonesia’s natural resource wealth.
“A distortion has occurred in our economy; our wealth has been flowing out significantly, thousands of trillions of rupiah, hundreds of billions of dollars each year,” said Prabowo.
The President assessed that the leakage of state wealth must not be allowed to continue, as it will impact the government’s ability to solve various fundamental problems, including improving public welfare.
“If the leakage of hundreds of billions of dollars of Indonesia’s wealth is allowed to continue flowing out, we can imagine what the fate of our nation will be. Therefore, I remind you that we have been given a mandate to solve the problem,” Prabowo said.
On the occasion, Prabowo also conveyed that the government has resolved more than 100 strategic issues during the first approximately 18 months of the administration. According to him, these achievements serve as capital for the government to continue improving services and enhancing public welfare.
The mid-year Plenary Cabinet Session was held as an evaluation forum for the Red and White Cabinet’s performance ahead of the President’s state address on the 81st Anniversary of the Independence of the Republic of Indonesia. During the session, the President outlined the government’s achievements as well as challenges in the fields of economy, food, and public welfare.