Remarks of President of the Republic of Indonesia at the Opening of the National Meeting of the National Development Planning for the 2025-2029 National Medium-Term Development Plan, the Office of National Development Planning Agency, Jakarta, December 30, 2024

Bismillahirahmanirahim.
Assalamu’alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh,

Good afternoon,

May peace be upon us all,

Shalom,

Salve,

Om Swastiastu,

Namo buddhaya,

Greetings of Virtue,

Rahayu rahayu.

Honorable Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia Gibran Rakabuming Raka;

Distinguished Minister of National Development Planning as host, Prof. Dr. Ir. Rachmat Pambudy;

Distinguished Speaker of the Regional Representatives Council Sultan Bachtiar Najamudin;

Distinguished Chief of Judicial Commission Prof. Amzulian Rifai;

Distinguished Chairperson of the Supreme Audit Agency Isma Yatun;

Distinguished Chairperson of Legislation Committee of the House of Representatives Bob Hasan;

Distinguished Coordinating Ministers, Ministers, and Deputy Ministers of the Red and White Cabinet, heads of agencies and institutions, Attorney General, Head of the State Intelligence Agency, Chief of Indonesian Police, Commander of the Indonesian Defence Forces, Governor of the National Resilience Institute, Governor of Bank Indonesia, Chairman of the Corruption Eradication Committee, Chairman of the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency, Chairman of the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre;

Distinguished Governors and Acting Governors, Heads of Regional Development Planning Agencies, Provincial Secretaries, Regents, and Mayors from across the country, as well as Chancellors who attended in person or via video conference;

Ladies and gentlemen,

On this occasion, of course, as religious people, let us never stop giving thanks to Allah, the Almighty God, since we are still given health and blessings so we are able to gather in such a historic place to attend the opening of the National Development Planning Conference for the 2025-2029 National Medium-Term Development Plan.

I would also like to thank the Head of the National Development Planning Agency and his staff, all governors, and the Head of the Regional Development Planning Agency, who have worked hard to compile and produce this medium-term development plan.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Several philosophies lead to economic understanding in national life. There was a very strong understanding in Western countries that economic development did not need to be planned; in fact, it should not be planned. The idea is now what we call neoliberal: the market drives the economy, and the Government is merely a regulator and a referee.

The founding fathers of Indonesia, in the 1945 Constitution, did not adhere to such understandings. They understood that the economy is structured on the basis of the principle of family. The Government is not just a referee. The Government must be responsible because it is elected by the people, so it must protect them. The Government must be a leader, pioneer, and manager of the economy and protect all the wealth of the nation.

Ladies and gentlemen,

In our current understanding of the economy, it is our obligation and right to call our economy the Pancasila economy. The economy of Pancasila is a combination of the best of the understanding of the free market, capitalism, and the best of the planned economy. That is Pancasila, between the free market and the planned economy.

The first president made an eight-year Universal Development Plan. Then, the second president continued with a five-year Development Plan. We, who are in this building, the Bappenas Office, must remember that we must hold fast: our economy is a Pancasila economy, an economy based on family. We still hold fast that development must be planned. We understand and know that. Our plan may not achieve 100 percent of the target, but the principles of national life teach us that without planning we do not know the direction we should take. In every organization, including private and corporate, creating a plan is a must: set our strategic plan and goals.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Therefore, every administration must adhere to the Opening of the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia. The founding fathers set national goals by making sacrifices and fighting colonialism and imperialism. They felt that Indonesian citizens at that time were third-class, even fourth-class citizens.

The first national goal is protection, to protect all Indonesian people. To Protect. The Vice President and I were sworn in to maintain and implement the 1945 Constitution. I must lead and protect the Government as well as all Indonesian people. You, as part of the Government and also as children of the nation, each have a responsibility to implement the Constitution.

We must protect our people, and we must protect them in a complete, comprehensive, and all-inclusive sense. Protecting them physically means our people must have enough to eat. Protecting all our people means we must be self-sufficient in food. How can we protect the nation if we cannot guarantee a food supply? There is no country and civilization without food. I remind you all, let us return to the basics of knowledge.

So, national development planning is important. However, we must use the basics as a reference. After we protect by guaranteeing its physical and the sources of life for our people, we must also protect the homeland that we sing about, advance public welfare as mandated by the Constitution, educate the nation’s life, and carry out the world order. But how can we take part if our house or our kitchen is not in order?

Ladies and gentlemen,

Such a thing is important to us all since the efforts for food and energy self-sufficiency are the basis of sovereignty. Once we guarantee food self-sufficiency and inshallah in a few years, we will be heading towards energy self-sufficiency, which is a must. I noted that there is a culture in Indonesia, even though it is only a few people who think of themselves as smart and always doubt the abilities of the Indonesian people. They may have a professor’s degree and went to famous schools, but they have low self-esteem. They always think bad whatever our people do. We haven’t worked yet, but they are already cynical.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The Government that I lead has no doubts. We adhere to the 1945 Constitution. We adhere to the ideals of the founders of Indonesia. We have good intentions: I want and am determined to lead the nation with a clean government. And God willing, with goodwill and determination, we will achieve our goals. Indonesia must have a clean government.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I often reiterate at many opportunities that we must stop the leaks. And I remind you once again that the state apparatus is very decisive in such policy. Any form of smuggling from outside to inside the country or vice versa endangers Indonesia’s sovereignty. Textile smuggling threatens our textile industry and the lives of hundreds of thousands of our workers.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I will look for legal experts and ask what authority I can give to the state apparatus. Can they sink ships that violate the law? For law professors in the Government, please give me input so that I can act according to the law. But if the ships threaten the lives of the Indonesian people, we will sink the ships if necessary.

Also, I ask the judges and all elements of the court not to give light sentences if the perpetrator has clearly violated the law and caused losses of trillions of rupiahs. I don’t want to be called ignorant of the law. Everyone understands, even the common people, that there are those who rob the state of hundreds of trillions but only get a sentence of a few years. Perhaps they may get various facilities such as air conditioning, refrigerators, and TVs in his prison. Please take note of this, Minister of Immigration and Correction Facilities and Attorney General. Have they filed an appeal? Oh, so they filed. Please give the sentence of 50 years or something like that.

Let us return to our true selves, return to the spirit of August 17, 1945, the ideals of the nation’s founders. I don’t want to blame anyone. This is our collective mistake and let’s fix it. I say to the state apparatus, let’s use this to clean up and fix ourselves rather than the people cleaning us up. It’s better for us to clean ourselves up. The people nowadays are not stupid; rather, they are smart. Everyone has gadgets. The situation is different, unlike 20-30 years ago.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I use this event as an opportunity to improve. Earlier, I expressed gratitude, and this is an opportunity to improve. I think this is input from the regions. I also ask for the magnanimity of all of our hearts and souls. I am sure the people are patient and kind. They understand who is on the right path and who is not.

So let’s do our best. We must implement our plan with realism and concrete things. Thank you for the figure earlier; I proposed 8 percent growth. Many are not sure and believe. Let’s prove it. Indeed, we may not reach 8 percent. Nevertheless, once again, the brave and great leaders in history, my own experience in my career as a soldier, if I face a tough enemy, I must be sure I will succeed and win because if not, we will not dare to do it.

Bung Karno told us to hang our ideals as high as the sky; if you don’t reach the sky, at least you fall among the stars. That is to motivate us. The Dutch, when they colonized us, said that Indonesia did not deserve independence in ’45; they mocked us, asking how Indonesia could deserve independence when they couldn’t even make a safety pin. Nevertheless, we gained independence. Our proclamation of independence probably only consisted of three lines. I think it was the shortest proclamation in the history. “Matters concerning the transfer of power will be—“ affirming that we can take care of administrative matters later, the most important thing is being independent first. But today, the administration must be good since we will be audited by the BPKP, KPK, and BPK. That’s why there is the National Planning Agency and its regional offices.

I ask for your magnanimity because there are concerns that must be prioritized. Right now, some ministries and institutions will not get the budget they want. We will see how it develops. Please do not bother the Minister of Finance continuously since she is responsible to me. When I served as Minister of Defense, my budget was limited by the Minister of Finance; now, the one who has a headache was Mr. Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin. If he feels limited by the Minister of Finance, she can tell him that this is my order. After I became president, I had to think that defense is very important, but children have to eat, teachers’ salaries must be improved, judges must immediately get decent official housing, and no judges should rent houses. I saw the Minister of Housing nodding; thank you, Minister of Housing. I noticed, your got more grey hair even though you have only been in office for two months. He is now smiling, I thank you.

For the governors and regents/mayors who are attending this meeting via video conference, I also ask for your magnanimity and patience. There may be some things that we have to prioritize. Believe me, in the end, you will also feel it. For example, the Village Fund is now Rp1 billion per year, right? With the nutritious food program, the money circulating in the village will probably increase by five, six, or even seven times. So it’s not that we… we will add but through a mechanism that we believe will reach the right beneficiary.

And for all state apparatus, echelons: the culture of marking up project costs and budgets is corruption. I repeat: it robs people’s money. If you make a project worth Rp100 million, please budget Rp100 million, don’t budget Rp150 million for the cost that should only be Rp100 million. We must reduce this culture. We must not reduce it; we must eliminate it. I will not repeat the numbers; you have often heard my lectures about our Incremental Capital Output Ratio being too high, yes, because of leaks. I will also not present the reports that I received here, whether related to leaks of money from the budget, online gambling, smuggling, illegal mining, illegal logging, and so on. Not on this occasion, but maybe it is necessary on another occasion. I have presented it at the cabinet meeting; maybe in the future, I will invite the regents and governors specifically to discuss this matter. I don’t want to lower the morale of our youth.

The people must be sure and determined that we now want to carry out national development by reducing all forms of leakage, manipulation, budget markup, trickery, and so on. Such actions require cooperation from all parties: judiciary, legislative, government, and state apparatus. We must work together. As I said earlier, our people can’t be lied to. Why did the one that caused losses of hundreds of trillions only get a verdict like that? It can hurt the sense of justice. There are those who steal chickens get heavy sentences and even get beaten.

I think that’s from me, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you.

Please carry out this event as well as possible. I would like to thank the governors. You are all the leadership units closest to the people. So are the regents. You are all the ones who know the problem best. Insyallah, if we manage it well, the income for the country will be good, real, and immediate. We, with the digitalization program, e-government, e-Catalog, and Govtech, will make it difficult for the opportunity to markup the funds; will be hard. We will see the results later in all ministries and institutions.

I am optimistic. I am sure that we will do well and surprise all parties, including foreign parties. I was even challenged by parties from abroad; they believe that Indonesia cannot reach 8 percent. If we reach 8 percent, I will be given a free dinner; I can choose the menu. I will choose the most expensive menu, but I will inform them that I recently lost a little weight.

I thank Bappenas and all its staff for their hard work. So do Bappeda and the governors. We step forward to tomorrow with courage, confidence, and togetherness. We can see that other countries are full of difficulties, tensions, and conflicts. We must be grateful. When I visit foreign countries, I feel that many countries expect too much from Indonesia; I am even horrified because they expect too much and think that Indonesia is already very advanced; they ask for this and that from us. Especially our palm oil. Apparently, palm oil is a strategic material. Many countries are afraid of not getting palm oil, imagine that. To the regents, governors, officials, soldiers, and police, please guard our palm oil plantations wherever they are because they are state assets.

I think in the future we should also expand our oil palm plantation, don’t be afraid of forest endangerment. Do you think it’s deforestation? Oil palm is also a tree, right? It has leaves, meaning it releases oxygen and absorbs carbon dioxide. So the accusation is baseless. It’s those people who are up to no good. So we’re fine. They were even confused when they wanted to limit us like Europe. I told them, thank you, we don’t sell to you. Now they’re panicking. Later, their entire chocolate industry will be in chaos because making chocolate requires oil palm. So do detergents and cosmetics. Now they’re confused. It’s okay.

That concludes my remarks. I thank you.

Wassalamu’alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.

(GWH/LW)