"Anak Jangan WNI" case heats up, the government blacklists LPDP recipients who insult Indonesia

Lembaga Pengelola Dana Pendidikan (LPDP) (@lpdp)

JAKARTA - Minister of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa emphasized that the government would not tolerate state scholarship recipients who insult or degrade Indonesia. The government even opened the opportunity to blacklist scholarship recipients of the Education Fund Management Agency (LPDP) who were considered not to respect the country after receiving funding from the people's money.

Purbaya made the statement in Jakarta, Monday, February 23. He emphasized that the LPDP funds come from the people's taxes and partly from state financing, which is allocated to build and improve the quality of Indonesia's human resources.

"Don't insult the country. That's money from taxes and part of the debt we set aside to ensure our human resources grow. But if it is used to insult the country, we ask for the money with interest," said Purbaya.

He regretted that there were scholarship recipients who actually delivered statements with a tone of degrading Indonesia in the public space. According to him, the government will not remain silent if state funds are used for actions that are considered detrimental to the dignity of the nation.

Purbaya emphasized that the evaluation of scholarship recipients would be carried out seriously. Firm steps, including cutting off access to state scholarship programs in the future, can be taken if violations of national values and commitments are found.

This controversy started with the upload of one of the LPDP awardees, Dwi Sasetyaningtyas, through his personal Threads account @sasetyaningtyas. In the post, which has now been deleted, DS shared a video showing the British passport belonging to his second child accompanied by the narration "Children Don't WNI" which then sparked a debate in the public space.

The upload went viral on social media and drew criticism from various circles. A number of netizens questioned the attitude of state scholarship recipients who were considered not to reflect nationalism, considering that the education funds received came from the state and the Indonesian people.