CSIS Highlights The Spike In Defense Expenditures: Are We Not Safe?

Senior Researcher CSIS Deni Friawan (Screenshot/YouTube CSIS Indonesia).

JAKARTA - Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) highlighted the significant increase in the portion of defense and order and security spending in the 2026 State Revenue and Expenditure Budget Draft (RAPBN).

Senior CSIS researcher, Deni Friawan, questioned the urgency of increasing the budget whose portion even exceeded education, health, and social protection.

"The spending of defense and security and security spending continues to increase significantly from year to year. The total portion of the two controls 18 percent of the 2026 RAPBN."

"This exceeds the education, social and health protection budget," Deni said in a media briefing entitled RAPBN 2026: Considering Political Promises Amid Fiscal Restrictions, monitored online, Monday, August 18, 2025.

"The question is whether we are not safe, are we at war, what is the impact of spending on security and defense?" he said.

In the 2026 RAPBN, defense spending is set at IDR 185 trillion, while spending on order and security is IDR 179.4 trillion. If combined, the second portion reaches 18 percent of the total state expenditure.

Meanwhile, the education budget rose 48 percent to IDR 757.8 trillion and health rose 22 percent to IDR 244 trillion. However, Deni emphasized that the increase in the education sector was not entirely real because 44 percent of the total budget was used to finance the priority program for Free Nutrition Food (MBG).

"So, what's left for (shopping) education is actually very small," he said.

In addition to highlighting the large portion of defense spending, Deni also assessed that the Government had not been transparent about accountability for the use of the budget in the sector.

"How the impact and accountability are because so far it has been related to this is very, very minimal," said Deni.