Prabowo's State of the Nation Address is Considered Concrete to Show the Direction of Government

JAKARTA - The Executive Director of Indonesia Political Review (IPR) Iwan Setiawan assessed President Prabowo Subianto's State of the Nation Address in the Joint Session of the MPR RI, DPR RI, and DPD RI showed the direction of the government. The content is said to not only give political messages but also explain the government's work achievements through real numbers.

"I give it a score of 99.9. This is not because his speech is good in terms of rhetoric alone, but because the President is able to show that government policies are starting to produce measurable numbers," Iwan told reporters quoted on Saturday, August 15.

"There is an output, there is an outcome, and there is a clear direction," he continued.

Iwan also said Prabowo's speech also did not cause controversy. The former Minister of Defense was considered to have explained many things, such as improving the performance of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) so that there was an increase in profits compared to 2024.

"The increase in SOEs' profits from Rp186 trillion to Rp326 trillion shows significant improvements in governance and efficiency. This is not a small number. This shows that state assets can be managed more productively," he said.

In addition, Iwan also highlighted the government's courage to make corrections to data, governance, and the performance of state institutions.

"The president is building a government culture that should not be satisfied with numbers on paper," he said.

Furthermore, Iwan sees the common thread of Prabowo's speech contains ideas regarding national independence through industrialization, downstream processing, strengthening SOEs, food security, energy, and the development of national industries.

One of them is the mention of the Free Nutritious Meal (MBG) program which is an important part of Prabowo's government direction.

"The President wants Indonesia not to be a country that is only a market. Indonesia must become a country that produces, processes, has technology, creates added value and enjoys the fruits of its own natural wealth," he explained.

Therefore, Iwan assessed that the state of the nation speech must be a measure of the government's performance in the following year. The public, he said, needs to return to demanding government achievements based on measurable indicators.

"Today the President delivered achievements. Next year the public must demand again. How much is the economic growth, how is poverty, unemployment, purchasing power, investment, state revenues, SOEs performance, quality of education and health. So this speech must be a performance contract that can be tested," he said.