Indonesian group claims financial woes are plot against Prabowo government

The 98 Resolution Network, a group of initiators, alleges that the current financial market instability, marked by a weakening rupiah and pressure on the Indonesian Stock Exchange Composite Index (IHSG), is not merely an economic phenomenon. They claim it is part of a systematic effort to undermine President Prabowo Subianto's administration through digital campaigns designed to erode public and market confidence.

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We see a pattern that leads to coordinated destabilization. Narratives like #SaleIndonesia, #1998Redux, #BuangRupiah, and #IndonesiaGelap did not appear out of nowhere. The goal is to erode trust in President Prabowo's progressive policies.

Haris Rusly Moti, the coordinator for the 98 Resolution Network, stated that narratives such as #SaleIndonesia, #1998Redux, #BuangRupiah, and #IndonesiaGelap are not spontaneous. He believes their purpose is to erode trust in President Prabowo's "progressive policies." According to Haris, these campaigns aim to generate negative sentiment that could lead to rupiah depreciation, pressure the stock market, trigger capital outflows, and disrupt national economic stability.

The network suggests that proponents of these campaigns hope to recreate the economic pressures that led to political upheaval in 1998. However, Haris asserts that Indonesia's current situation is vastly different from that of 1998, citing a shift from a unipolar to a multipolar global geopolitical order and significant changes in the global economic and political landscape. He also noted that international institutions like the IMF, World Bank, and WTO hold less sway now than in the past.

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The world has changed. In 1998 we were in a unipolar geopolitical order when the United States was the dominant power. Now the world is moving towards multipolar. The global economic and political landscape is also no longer the same.

Haris identified three main groups he believes are negatively impacted by President Prabowo's strategic policies and thus have an interest in fostering negative opinions. These include domestic "greedy oligarchs," multinational corporations and actors benefiting from loopholes in national resource management, and foreign entities profiting from capital flight from Indonesia. He specifically mentioned government initiatives like the establishment of the Danantara state investment agency, mandatory placement of export proceeds for natural resources within the country for a year, land control regularization, food self-sufficiency programs, and anti-corruption efforts as potential triggers for resistance from these groups.

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According to us, there are groups whose economic interests are being disturbed by President Prabowo's agenda. Therefore, they have an interest in building negative opinions and weakening trust in the government.