Purbaya confirms husband of LPDP scholarship awardee DS will repay scholarship funds

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa has confirmed that the husband of an Education Fund Management Institution (LPDP) alumna with the initials DS, who went viral on social media, will return all scholarship funds received to the state.

He said that LPDP Acting Director Sudarto had communicated directly with the relevant parties, and DS’s husband, who is also an LPDP awardee, has agreed to repay the scholarship funds.

“The LPDP boss has spoken with the husband in question. And he appears to have agreed to return the money used from LPDP. This includes interest, mind you. LPDP funds — if I were to deposit that money in a bank, there would be interest, wouldn’t there? That’s the fair treatment,” said Purbaya during the February 2026 edition of the APBN KiTa press conference in Jakarta on Monday.

The Finance Minister expressed regret over the alumna’s conduct, which he deemed insulting to the nation through her social media posts. He stressed that LPDP funds originate from public taxes and partly from national debt allocated for human resource development.

“That money comes from taxes and partly from debt that we set aside to ensure our human resources grow. But if it’s used to insult the nation, then we’ll ask for the money back with interest,” he added.

Purbaya also stated that the individual concerned would be placed on a blacklist, barring them from employment within the government sector.

The controversy began with a post by DS on her personal Instagram account on Friday, 20 February 2026. In the video, the LPDP alumna displayed a British passport belonging to her second child, who had recently obtained British citizenship.

In the caption of her post, DS wrote a statement that subsequently sparked controversy, as it was perceived to disparage Indonesian passport access and was considered to lack pride in Indonesian citizenship.

On the same occasion, Sudarto conveyed that LPDP deeply regretted the behaviour of the alumna in question. He assessed that her actions did not reflect the values, identity, and ethics that have been instilled in LPDP scholarship recipients.