Prabowo reveals unexpected challenges, significant wealth leakage in 21 months

President Prabowo Subianto has admitted that the challenges confronting his administration are more severe than initially expected. During a plenary cabinet meeting on Monday, July 20, 2026, he stated that over the past 21 months, the government has uncovered numerous problems.

These issues range from the low welfare of teachers and limited employment opportunities to extreme poverty and economic inequality. "I myself as President, as one given the mandate along with the Vice President (Gibran Rakabuming Raka), we were sworn in, I myself did not expect how some of these problems were far beyond our expectations," Prabowo said.

A major concern highlighted by the President, who also chairs the Gerindra Party, is the significant annual leakage of national wealth. He described a "distortion of our economy" where trillions of rupiah, equivalent to hundreds of billions of U.S. dollars, flow out of the country each year.

Prabowo attributed this leakage to various illegal practices, including under-invoicing of export values, transfer pricing, and smuggling. He characterized these unfair practices as long-standing problems that are "truly illogical and truly unfair to our nation."