Regarding Prabowo's Reference to "Dark Indonesia", Qodari Urges the Public to Focus on Substance

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - The head of the Indonesian Government’s Communication Agency (Bakom), Muhammad Qodari, has asked the public to focus on the substance of President Prabowo Subianto’s speech. Not on a single sentence that alluded to a “dark Indonesia” and fleeing to Yemen during his address in Cilacap, Central Java, on Wednesday (29/4/2026). “Don’t cherry-pick one sentence from him about that; don’t say Indonesia is dark, if you don’t like it, just go to Yemen. Don’t highlight that, but look at the substantive points,” Qodari said during the Satu Meja The Forum event on Kompas TV, Wednesday (29/4/2026) night. Qodari then explained that Prabowo’s speech extensively discussed programmes for national self-reliance and downstreaming. “Because so far, they have benefited from us sending raw materials. Now the President doesn’t want that; he wants to build added value through what? Downstreaming,” Qodari said. “So if outside of that there are those who are unhappy and then they subvert, infiltrate, and so on, we can’t be naive about it either,” he added. Prabowo also invited intelligent people to flee Indonesia if they saw the domestic situation as dark. “What else are they doing to us, Indonesia is dark. Their eyes are blurry, Indonesia is dark. Indonesia is bright. If anyone wants to flee, just flee,” Prabowo stated during the groundbreaking of 13 national downstreaming projects in Cilacap, Central Java, on Wednesday (29/4/2026). Prabowo said that if intelligent people wanted to flee, they were welcome to go to Yemen. “Just flee there. Maybe some want to flee to Yemen. Go ahead. Flee wherever. Hey, intelligent people, open the news, see that we are placed as the safest place in the world now. Just flee. Yes, just flee, so we don’t have any fuss,” he said.