Saiful Mujani: Public Increasingly Afraid to Talk Politics

Saiful Mujani Research Center and Consulting founder Saiful Mujani has said the public is increasingly afraid to talk politics openly in the era of President Prabowo Subianto’s administration. The statement referred to a survey by Saiful Mujani Research Center and Consulting in March 2026. He said this condition is different from the situation at the beginning of the reform era. “At the beginning of the reform era, if a scale was made from 0 to 10, the score at that time was seven. Now, it only gets a score of three,” he said during a speech at the Republic Conference in Cikini, Central Jakarta, on Sunday, 28 June 2026. The survey asked the public to what extent they feared talking politics. From the survey, 3 out of 10 were afraid to talk politics. For him, this condition indicates that the freedom to talk politics is increasingly narrow. Saiful also cited the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) theory regarding freedom of expression. Freedom of expression means the government respects citizens’ rights to convey freedom of expression, including political freedom and academic life. Based on the V-Dem analysis, Indonesia’s freedom score from around 2000 to 2010 averaged 7. However, in 2025, the score was below 5. “So from seven, it is now at an average position of four from all these aspects,” he said. Based on this, Saiful assessed that freedom is currently at a very low point. In addition, the public is also afraid of the arbitrariness of state apparatus and violations of the constitution. For him, this condition of fear must be fought. Previously, Saiful Mujani presented these findings in the ‘Bedah Politik’ programme on the SMRC TV YouTube channel on Thursday, 30 April 2026. He referred to a series of national surveys by SMRC and LSI that captured public attitudes towards the freedom to talk politics. Since October 2024, when Prabowo became president, the public’s perception of fear has begun to strengthen. At that time, 51 percent of citizens felt the public was afraid to discuss politics. Then, that figure rose to 53 percent in March 2026. Saiful spoke at the Republic Conference in Cikini. The conference was supposed to be held at the University of Indonesia (UI) campus in Salemba, Central Jakarta, on Sunday morning, 28 June 2026. However, UI suddenly banned the activity. The reason given was that the activity did not meet administrative procedures. The conference was attended by participants from various backgrounds, such as Sudirman Said and Yanuar Nugroho.