What is Prabowo’s economic vision for Indonesia? Exploring his capitalist, socialist ‘mix’

Prabowo, who will be inaugurated on Sunday, recently declared his intention to overhaul the nation’s economic system to ensure fairer wealth distribution across Southeast Asia’s largest economy.

“We must have the courage to fix our system. We must ask ourselves what we can do to ensure that Indonesia’s wealth is distributed fairly to all, not just a few. We cannot rely on trickle-down economics. That is too slow,” Prabowo said during an investor summit in Jakarta on October 9.

Trickle-down economics refers to policies that primarily benefit the wealthy, based on the belief that their prosperity will eventually benefit lower-income groups. Such policies often include tax cuts for the rich and deregulation.

Prabowo, who turned 73 on Thursday, said Indonesia’s average annual growth rate of 5 per cent was “good”, but more work was needed to achieve “greater wealth equality”. The former special forces commander said he aimed to boost the country’s annual growth to 8 per cent, which he admitted was an ambitious target.

“They often mocked me for wanting 8 per cent growth, but that’s OK. Remember what [Indonesia’s first president] Sukarno said, ‘dream as high as the sky. If you fall, you will fall among the stars’,” he said, emphasising that even a slight miss could still yield robust growth of 7 per cent or more.