Prabowo’s approval rating in Indonesia falls to 44.5% — ABC News Australia
In Indonesia, dissatisfaction among young voters with President Prabowo Subianto is growing in the month marking the second anniversary of his time in office. Students and civil society representatives have taken to the streets to protest the government’s economic policy and the authorities’ response to forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan, ABC News reports.
A poll by Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting, released this month, recorded a drop in Prabowo’s approval rating from 81.2% in November last year to 44.5%. At the same time, research by Poltracking Indonesia showed that 64.8% of respondents trust the president’s administration, while 62% believe the government is seriously working to solve problems.
Disappointment with the food programme
Some young people who supported Prabowo in the 2024 election say their attitude toward the president has changed. According to an exit poll by the Kompas newspaper, about two-thirds of Generation Z voters and nearly 60% of millennials voted for him at the time.
Among the reasons for dissatisfaction is the free school meals programme, one of Prabowo’s key campaign promises. The programme, aimed at combating malnutrition, led to food poisoning among thousands of recipients. Critics also claim it reduced funding for teachers’ salaries, although the government denies this. Indonesia’s National Food Agency told parliament that digestive problems occurred because standard procedures were violated.
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In July, Indonesia’s Constitutional Court ruled that from 2028 the government must stop funding this programme from the education budget. The authorities said they had increased the overall education budget, monthly teacher allowances and the number of teachers receiving them.
Protests over the economy and fires
Young voters are also criticising the government’s economic performance. The rupiah weakened to a historic low against the US dollar, while index provider MSCI last week proposed downgrading Indonesia’s market status from “emerging market” to “standalone”. The government announced measures worth more than 26 trillion rupiah to reduce the cost of living, including the distribution of 10-kilogram rice packages to 33.24 million recipients.
Protests over the response to forest fires intensified this week in at least six cities. Smoke from fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan also blanketed neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore. Protesters are demanding that the fires be declared a national disaster, but the government considers this premature. The authorities say Prabowo is personally overseeing the response, has directed additional funding to seven provinces and deployed more than 71,000 people. The Ministry of Forestry reported sanctions against 32 companies.
At a cabinet meeting, Prabowo acknowledged that the government needs to do more to meet public expectations, but said there had been tangible results over two years.
