Netray Monitoring: Negative Sentiment Colors Budget Efficiency Policy

President Prabowo Subianto instructed budget efficiency for a number of ministries/agencies (K/L), as stated in Presidential Instruction Number 1 of 2025 concerning Expenditure Efficiency in the Implementation of the 2025 APBN and APBD which is valid on January 22, 2025.

This budget savings reached Rp306.69 trillion, with details of K/L efficiency of Rp256.1 trillion and transfer funds to the regions (TKD) of Rp50.5 trillion.

President Prabowo's decision to brutally achieve budget efficiency received negative responses from various circles, one of which was the Director of the Center of Economic and Law Studies (Celios) Bhima Yudhistira.

He said that the risk is as high as the budget efficiency, such as the higher termination of employment (PHK) for honorary employees, the sluggishness of the MICE sector (meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions), to disruption of public services.

The discussion of budget efficiency has attracted the attention of the wider community who have also monitored through online media coverage for at least the past week. Netray monitors the development of this issue, and as a result, many media have discussed the issue of budget efficiency from various perspectives.

During the period 6 -12 February 2025 2.3 thousand articles were found from 247 media,' according to a Netray report.

If observed since the beginning of monitoring or February 6, the media has discussed this topic in 424 articles. The following day it increased to 565 articles which also became the peak of the number of news.

On that date, discussions related to the 13th salary and THR of civil servants will still exist even though there is budget efficiency.

One of the most discussed media from the impact of budget cuts is the issue of salary, especially the Judicial Commission (KY) supervisory salary. KY chairman Amzulian Rifai said KY operations would be disrupted due to budget efficiency, the estimated salary for all employees only reached October 2025.

For information, the KY budget was cut by 54 percent of the original total budget of Rp. 184 billion. In fact, this budget efficiency will hinder the selection of Supreme Court Justices and Ad Hoc HAM Judges. In fact, there are 16 vacancies in the position of Supreme Court justices in various justice rooms. With this limitation, KY cannot confirm when to make a selection.

In addition, the topic of infrastructure development has also been discussed by the Indonesian mass media. This is related to the threat of infrastructure development in various regions due to this efficiency.

As in the Wonogiri district, for example, which received a cut of IDR 63 billion. This cut caused delays in the construction of a number of roads in Wonogiri in 2025.

The Wonogiri Regency Government will try to optimize the budget from the Regional Original Revenue (PAD) sector to realize priority projects that must continue to run. Wonogiri Regent Joko Sutopo clearly explained that during the COVID-19 pandemic there were also budget priority adjustments but the local government still managed. Meanwhile, the current budget efficiency of the funds is directly managed by the central government.

The same thing was experienced by the City of Probolinggo, East Java, which was cut by Rp5.8 billion from the previous Rp493.9 billion. The Head of the Probolinggo City Regional Revenue, Financial Management and Assets Agency (BPPKAD), Ratri Dian Sulistyawati, is worried that infrastructure development funds will also be affected.

However, construction entrepreneurs still hope that the ongoing infrastructure development will not stagnate due to budget efficiency. Chairman of the Indonesian Construction Services Communication Forum Andi Rukman Karumpa emphasized that the government needs to continue infrastructure projects in order to maintain national economic growth because infrastructure is one of the foundations for development that encourages Indonesia's competitiveness.

In addition, he also suggested that the government can carry out regulatory relaxation to facilitate access to funding and licensing for infrastructure projects.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani became the person who was widely mentioned in this news after President Prabowo Subianto. The woman who was born on August 26, 1962, is mentioned in 479 news articles.

He explained to the public the reason why Prabowo was doing efficiency, namely wanting the use of the state budget to be more efficient, good, clean, and focused, especially in maintaining the needs of the community.

Netray also caught public opinion regarding this issue. Through social media X using the same period and keywords, 11.6 thousand accounts were found which resulted in 43.3 thousand uploads with the dominance of negative sentiment.

The most popular opinion came from academic Nabiyla Risfa Izzati (@nabisvisfa). He expressed his disappointment with the government, which has only been 100 days more in charge, but has been colored by a fat cabinet with many figures who are considered incompetent. Coupled with the massive budget efficiency policy, he is worried that public services will be increasingly hampered. His upload also drew widespread attention, with 25 comments, 6.3 thousand people, and 4.5 thousand reposts.

Warganet also highlighted the number of special staff (stafsus) who were considered excessive in the Prabowo administration. The staff said that it was even one of the most striking terms in the trend graph of netizen conversation.

One of them came from the @Banumustafa24 account, which questioned the urgency of the number of ministers, deputy ministers, staff, and special envoys. He estimates that in the future, the community will increasingly depend on social assistance (bansos) and MBG policies due to current government measures.

The @raffimulya account assesses that the current government is increasingly unclear about its policy direction. He highlighted the fact that the Ministry of Defense was untouched by budget cuts, even adding special staff, such as Deddy Corbuzier. Not only criticizing, he also invited the public to go on strike as a form of protest.

On the other hand, other hashtags that try to build a positive narrative about Prabowo, namely #AnggaranBijakUntukRakyat, actually get less attention. This hashtag conveys the message that budget efficiency will not harm the community and instead aims to maximize the benefits of the state budget.

Some uploads that use this hashtag state that budget efficiency will not have an impact on public services, subsidies, or employee salaries. There are also those who call it a sign of Prabowo's affection for all Indonesian people.

However, even though it was uploaded quite a lot, it was recorded 2,785 times, this hashtag seems to have received less attention from netizens, with the lack of likes, comments, and reposts.