TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
No more 'trickle-down' economy: Prabowo
Tycoon Hashim Djojohadikusumo said Prabowo was always “more of a socialist” on account of his late father Sumitro Djojohadikusumo, the last chairman of the Indonesian Socialist Party (PSI) before its dissolution in 1960.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
President-elect Prabowo Subianto (left) speaks to the media on April 24 with vice president-elect Gibran Rakabuming Raka as they arrive at the plenary session of the General Elections Commission (KPU), which confirmed their victory. (AFP/Yasuyoshi Chiba )
P
resident-elect Prabowo Subianto has vowed to improve wealth distribution in the country and he will do so by pushing various programs and interventions deemed beneficial for the poor, in a move that analyst say reflects a distinctly socialist approach.
Prabowo, who will be sworn on Oct. 20, stressed that the incoming government under his leadership must dare to correct the existing system so that the country’s wealth does not benefit only a small group of people.
He also praised examples set by incumbent President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in handling inflation whereby the state directly intervened “to protect the weakest”.
“We must ask how Indonesia’s wealth can benefit all Indonesians, not just a small group of people. We cannot rely on trickle-down economics, it’s too slow,” Prabowo said on Wednesday at the closing of the BNI Investor Daily Summit 2024 in Jakarta.
Trickle-down economics favors disproportionate benefits for wealthy businesses and individuals that typically materialize in deregulation and less tax, as it is believed these eventually help improve living standards for those below and drive overall economic growth.
Prabowo went on to say that Jokowi’s style of intervention was “prudent management”, which suggested he might uphold similar measures when he takes office, since the economy is “not something that the government should leave to chance”.
The president-elect added that he wanted to create a “strong national, united government” that required a “big coalition”. He explained expanding the cabinet was necessary, even as critics fear it will lead to a bloated administration.
