Prabowo Criticizes SOEs, Suggests Investigating Directors 30 Years Behind

JAKARTA - President Prabowo Subianto opened a discourse on the establishment of an ad hoc court to investigate the directors of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) for the past 30 years. The discourse was delivered by Prabowo when highlighting the governance of BUMN which was considered problematic and irresponsible.

Prabowo also revealed that the government found 1,074 SOEs when Danantara was formed. This number is much larger than the estimate of only around 300 to 400 SOEs.

"And these SOEs sometimes work as they please. They are not responsible to the nation, to the country. The government is not considered. I don't understand how this can happen," said Prabowo in the 2026 Annual Meeting of the Indonesian People's Consultative Assembly and joint session of the Indonesian House of Representatives and the Indonesian DPD, Friday, August 14.

Due to this condition, Prabowo opened the possibility of forming an ad hoc court to investigate parties who have managed SOEs in the last three decades.

"Maybe we have to form a special ad hoc court to investigate the directors of the directors for 30 years," said Prabowo.

However, Prabowo also opened the possibility of a special amnesty for those who are willing to admit their mistakes and repent. According to him, the decision regarding this will be handed over to the people's representatives.

"But I will also face the House of Representatives, I will face the DPR, I will ask if necessary we also give opportunities, a kind of special amnesty for those who repent, those who are aware, those who admit. Well, I leave this to the people's representatives to decide," said Prabowo.

Prabowo assessed that the problem of SOE governance needed to be immediately corrected. He said there were still many SOEs that were not productive, even incurring losses but still reported performance that seemed to be profitable.

"Brothers, there are too many unproductive SOEs. It's a loss to report the profit. It's a good thing that it's a loss," he said.