Sultan Abdurrahman, Imam Hamdi – The Centre for Economic and Law Studies (Celios) has criticised President Prabowo Subianto's remarks about unpatriotic observers. According to Celios Executive Director Bhima Yudhistira, this accusation reflects Prabowo's paranoid attitude towards differences of opinion in society.

Yudhistira said Prabowo should not treat criticism as a threat. "This is a paranoid attitude towards dissenting opinions", said Yudhistira when contacted on Sunday March 15.

Yudhistira said that threats against researchers, including Celios, have increased under Prabowo's leadership. The threat, he said, has become increasingly intense in digital space. "In the last week, the narrative that research institutions are foreign funded and unpatriotic seems to have become more intense", he said.

Celios, he said, has felt more and more threats in digital space after they conducted research on the Free Nutritious Food (MBG) program and the Indonesia-United States trade agreement. Yudhistira views this phenomenon as part of an effort to silence critical observers.

According to Yudhistira, the government should be happy because there are civil institutions that are willing to research policies without using the state budget. "This data should be able to be used for policy making, but instead it is being threatened", he said.

Yudhistira believes that Prabowo's remarks about unpatriotic observers are an alarm for academic freedom. "Academics are afraid to write policy criticisms, and the space for dialogue seems to be closed", he said.

Celios, said Yudhistira, also feels that there are a number of media that limited Celios as a source. The reasons vary from looking for pro-government economists to being banned by superiors.

Yudhistira claims that Celios continues to consistently strive to provide policy analysis based on data. If the government objects, he said, Celios is open to discussions.

Yudhistira said that Celios often had discussions with people in government, such as the Ministry of Finance and Bank Indonesia. However, he said, this space for discussion does not appear at the elite level. "What's strange is the top level political elite. High-ranking officials tend to be allergic to discussion", he said.

President Prabowo earlier accused a number of observers of not having a patriotic attitude. He claimed they gain financial benefits by criticising the government.

Prabowo said there are several types of observers in Indonesia. One of them, he said, is observers who don't like his government's success because they have ulterior motives. "In my opinion, their attitude is narrow, not patriotic", said Prabowo during a cabinet meeting at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Friday March 13.

Prabowo stated that he routinely receives intelligence information about observers who don't like the government. From these reports, he said, he knows the parties who are financing them.

Prabowo said he wants to take action against them. "In time we will sort all of them out. But for now we're still trying to use persuasive methods", he said.

Prabowo speculated about the motivations of these critics. According to Prabowo they may feel defeated, have no power or have lost their sources of money because of his government, which he claims is firm on corruption.

"Especially thieves, corruptors, (they) feel like they are losing out under our government right. We want to sort them out", he said.

According to Prabowo, he is currently still trying to convince the public through an evidence-based approach. He believes that people can understand the policies taken by the government given clear evidence.

[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Prabowo Singgung Pengamat Tak Patriotik, Celios: Paranoid".]

Source: https://www.tempo.co/politik/prabowo-singgung-pengamat-tak-patriotik-celios-paranoid-2122341