Member of Commission II of the DPR from the Gerindra Faction, Azis Subekti, assessed that President Prabowo Subianto's leadership could be read as a historical phase. Where the country again remembers 'itself' and creates a contemporary Indonesian political history.
Azis said that the history of Indonesian politics moves not like a straight line, but like a collective memory that often forgets and occasionally becomes aware. There was a time when the state was too strong to oppress, and there was a time when the state shrank, handing over too many public affairs to market mechanisms, informal networks, and forces that the people never elected.
"Contemporary Indonesia is between these two experiences, trying to avoid repetition, while groping for a new form of a working state," Azis said in his statement, Friday, January 16.
"In such a landscape, Prabowo Subianto's leadership can be read as a historical phase. Not merely an electoral event, not because this leadership is free from criticism, history is always suspicious of power, but because the direction of the policy taken shows a change in the attitude of the state towards its own role," he continued.
According to Azis, the state is no longer completely withdrawing as a procedural regulator, but is beginning to intervene again in basic matters that have determined the fate of small people.
"Debt write-off for farmers and fishermen is the most concrete example. In the history of Indonesian economic-political, debt is not just a financial instrument; it often serves as a freezing mechanism. Land that is seized, certificates that are held back, and closed access to capital create a circle of social stagnation. When the state chooses to remove the bad debt and opens the way for the collateral to return to its owner, what is being restored is not only cash flow, but also the capacity to live," he said.
Azis said the state was intervening at a point where inequality was reproduced from generation to generation, a corrective step in the study of the welfare state, marking the presence of a state that was not neutral to structural injustice.
This step, said Azis, is not standing alone. It goes hand in hand with the regulation of a forest area, a historical field that always reflects the original face of Indonesian power.
"From the colonial era to post-reform, forests have often been a gray space: state-owned on paper, but controlled by other actors in the field. When the state takes back millions of hectares of areas that are controlled without rights, then clearly distinguishes between conservation areas and areas that can be managed by the state, what is being rebuilt is the sovereignty of space," he said.
"The crackdown in areas such as Tesso Nilo is important not only ecologically, but also politically: it marks the limit where economic interests no longer automatically prevail over law and sustainability," Azis continued.
In the mining sector, continued Azis, the absence of the state for years has given birth to a brutal extractive economy. Illegal mines grow as a symptom of weak enforcement and expensive compliance. The closure of thousands of mine sites and the seizure of hundreds of tons of tin is not just a legal operation, but a change in the rationality of power.
"Violations are no longer cheap. Natural wealth is restored as public property, not the result of free hunting. In the literature on resource politics, this is the point at which the state begins to restore its capacity to regulate distribution and suppress long-term damage," he continued.
Azis emphasized that the moral dimension of power finds its form in the eradication of corruption accompanied by asset recovery. So far, he said, corruption has often been dealt with by the logic of punishment alone.
"What is left is social losses that never really come back. When confiscated funds in the amount of trillions of rupiah are diverted for education, school repairs, and scholarships, the state is shifting the meaning of justice. Punishment does not stop at the perpetrators, but is directed at restoring public rights. In an academic perspective, this approaches the practice of restorative justice on a national scale - rare, but determining long-term legitimacy," he said.
In addition, said Azis, disasters are always the most naked test for the country. There, the theory collapses and all that is left is action.
"The rapid response to flooding, the installation of emergency bridges, the repair of health facilities, shows an institutional reflex that works. Political history records that the state loses legitimacy not primarily because of intellectual criticism, but because of the failure to be present when citizens are at their most vulnerable point," said Azis.
"Interestingly, the repositioning of this country does not stop within territorial boundaries. Ownership of the Hajj village in Mecca gives a symbolic and practical dimension. In the study of nationality, the ability of a country to protect and serve its citizens outside its own territory is an indicator of the maturity of a nation-state. From tenant to owner, the state changes the power relationship in the service of worship. This is not rhetorical nationalism, but administrative nationalism - nationalism that works through certainty, efficiency, and dignity of service," he continued.
If summarized, Azis said, contemporary Indonesia is experiencing a phase that can be read as a reconsolidation of the state. Not back to a repressive state, but out of a state that has been too long hesitant to use its authority to protect the weak and regulate the strong.
"There is always a risk, the strengthening of power must continue to be monitored, but history shows that a completely absent state is much more damaging to social justice," he said.
Azis emphasized that his view was not intended as a justification for power, but as a reading of direction. History does not judge intentions, but consistency.
"Whether this phase will institutionalize and last beyond one leadership, or rather stop as a temporary episode, is an open question. But academically it can be noted: whenever a country begins to remember itself, history always moves, slowly, often imperfectly, but real in the lives of the people. That's where the real measure lies," he concluded.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
