October 22 marked one year since Prabowo took office. Twelve months that have felt like forever for many of us Indonesians. The worst part? it’s only been a year, and we still have four more to endure. During this long year, the Prabowo’s administration has already shown its true colors: one big red flag. In just one year, the regime has faced three major waves of mass protests. As for climate and energy policies, it didn’t get any better. Development projects and other decisions continues to ignore the climate crisis, while the just energy transition remains far from reality.
The so-called development especially National Strategic Projects (PSN) keep on ignoring climate and environmental impacts. To top it off, some development projects and policies are justified in the name of energy transition. Prabowo’s administration seems overly fixated on self-sufficiency, especially in food and energy. To fulfill this ambition, they’ve relied on food estate projects and the expansion of palm oil plantations, both of which have raised serious environmental concerns because as the plan involves clearing 20 million hectares of forest. The latest policy is the introduction of a 10% ethanol fuel blend, presented as part of the “energy transition”. But in reality, it could drive further deforestation, as the government plans to clear up to one million hectares of land for sugarcane plantations as the main ethanol feedstock. Such large-scale land clearing not only cause deforestation and reduce carbon absorption, but also harm local communities, displacing over one million people and enforced through excessive force, violence, criminalization, and even unlawful killings carried out by state security forces.
The government’s climate ambitions are little more than empty talk. The claim Prabowo made at the G20 Summit in Brazil, that Indonesia will reach 100% renewable energy by 2035, comes without any concrete roadmap or aligned policies. The national electricity plan (RUPTL) still includes plans to build gas-fired power plants in more than 100 locations, effectively extending the lifespan of fossil fuels. Meanwhile, the updated NDC, already delayed from its original timeline, remains far from ambitious and offers no clear commitment to phase out coal. The same hollow claims of climate ambition have also been repeated in other international forums, including the UN General Assembly.
However, the regime’s greatest failure goes beyond its environmental policies, its how they silences their own people.
The biggest red mark goes to the shrinking state of civil space. Due to poor governance and policies driven by trial and error, the Prabowo administration has faced three major waves of protests in just twelve months, with at least 5,444 people arrested according to the police’s own records. These protests were met with police brutality, ranging from violence against demonstrators to the arrest of activists, reflecting the government’s failure to guarantee a safe civic space. The death of Affan Kurniawan, an online motorcycle driver who was killed by a police car, highlights the regime’s gravest failure so far: its inability to ensure the safety of its own people within just one year in power.
We cannot simply endure these reckless administration, we must resist. Empty climate promises, ongoing deforestation, and energy policies that ignore the planet go hand in hand with the shrinking of civil space and rampant violations of human rights. Indonesians cannot wait for change from a government that prioritizes short-term ambition over people and the environment. It is on us to demand accountability, defend our forests, protect our communities, and fight for a civic space where everyone can speak and live safely. One year may have passed, but the struggle for a just, sustainable, and free Indonesia is only just beginning.
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