November 18, 2025 | 04:13 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) noted that corruption eradication efforts in one year of President Prabowo Subianto and VP Gibran Rakabuming's administration have worsened.
ICW researcher, Yassar Aulia, said law enforcement exhibitions and seizing trillions of rupiah, like the government did in the CPO corruption case, do little to ensure better corruption eradication. In fact, Prabowo's government only served to disrupt anti-graft efforts initiated by the 1998 Reform.
"In the span of one year, the Prabowo-Gibran administration has turned the Reform agenda that has been ongoing since 1998 into a futile effort," said Yassar on Tuesday, November 18, 2025.
Yassar mentioned that the public perception of Prabowo as a forceful figure in corruption eradication could not be further from reality.
ICW found three preconditions that led to the failure of corruption eradication efforts during the Prabowo administration. They are the normalization of political conflict of interest, the expansion of power held by the president, and the increasingly overt practices of patronage and cronyism.
"This indeed occurred in the previous administrations, but it has worsened in the era of Prabowo-Gibran, and it has only happened within a span of a year," said Yassar. "Imagine, 27 years of Reform can be easily disrupted by an administration that has only been in power for a year."
The watchdog highlights how the Red and White Cabinet was formed. Conflict of interest was rife in the establishment of the cabinet. Furthermore, many deputy ministers held dual positions.
ICW also scrutinized how Prabowo often used executive discretion through Presidential Regulations and Presidential Instructions. Yassar mentioned that the various forms of discretion indicate a tendency for the President to take over the governance without proper checks and balances.
"We see presidential instructions, presidential regulations, made unilaterally but with broad effects, increasing in number," said Yassar.
ICW also scrutinized legal enforcement interventions during the Prabowo regime. Yassar stated that President Prabowo was the first to give amnesty and abolitions in corruption cases. Moreover, these pardons were done before the final court ruling at the Supreme Court.
"But the President stepped in. Because there is no justifiable explanation, it is difficult not to factor in politics," said Yassar. "The unilateral decisions by the President are dangerous and even signal that law enforcement can be taken over by the President, based on his political discretion."
The corruption eradication during Prabowo's tenure was exacerbated by bestowing the national hero title on former president Soeharto. Yassar said Soeharto should not be designated a hero because the systemic corruption in Indonesia exists as a legacy of the New Order regime under Soeharto.
The ICW researcher maintained that awarding such a title to Soeharto is akin to whitewashing corruption practices during the New Order regime. And again, all of these were done within the span of a year of Prabowo-Gibran's administration.
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