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.
Indonesians consider fleeing country as frustration with government grows
Feeling a mixture of anger and hopelessness, a number of Indonesians have found themselves looking for a life out of the country.
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!
Challenges: Between striving for academic excellence and adjusting to new cultures, Indonesian students abroad grapple with a number of adversities, often caused by their identity as foreigners. (Unsplash/Joan Kwamboka) (Unsplash/Joan Kwamboka)
I
n the past month, Aldo Simanjuntak’s coffee shop in South Jakarta has only had about one third of its typical number of customers. His one-time regulars, mostly university students and employees of a nearby state-run bank, have been coming by less and less frequently.
“They used to come every day. Now they’ll come maybe twice, three times a week at most,” the 29-year-old entrepreneur told The Jakarta Post on Friday. “Since rumors of a massive ‘efficiency’ [drive] from the government have circulated, my sales have dropped. I have never in my business seen such a dramatic drop in [purchases].”
In Bandung, West Java, meanwhile, 30-year-old marketing specialist Sara Akmalia is getting increasingly frustrated with the process of picking an elementary school for her son, who will turn seven in a few months.
She cannot comfortably afford private school fees, and the recent cuts to the national education budget have further decreased her confidence in the country’s public school system.
“The regulations here are generally absurd, but the ones on education are at the top of my concerns,” Sara told the Post. “It’s just getting incredibly hard to live in Indonesia. Prices have gone up, but wages have stayed the same.”
Read also: House begins exercising new power
Late last month, the administration of President Prabowo Subianto instructed ministries and state institutions to cut a combined Rp 306.7 trillion (US$18.9 billion) from their budgets this year to fund the President’s costly initiatives, including his free meals program.
