January 21, 2026 | 01:44 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Economists Alliance has once again issued seven economic demands in a meeting on Tuesday, January 20, 2026. The meeting was held to maintain the momentum since the first set of demands was released in September 2025, said one alliance member, Yose Rizal Damuri, the Executive Director of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
"One of our current concerns is the fragility and risks of state expenditure budget, an issue that we have consistently raised, including budget misallocation," said Yose at the CSIS office in Jakarta on Tuesday, January 20, 2026.
The risk of budget misallocation, Yose said, would increase going forward, with the sustainability coming into question.
Over the past four months, the alliance has met with several government representatives, including the National Economic Council, the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, and the sovereign wealth fund Danantara, to no avail. The alliance believes the government has yet to take concrete steps in response to the demands.
Another member of the Indonesian Economic Alliance, economist Rizki Nauli Siregar from the University of Indonesia, said the alliance discussed strategies and measures to make tangible changes, one of which is by creating regional alliance networks.
"Because issues of misallocation of resources and fragile institutions are not only happening at the national level but also at the local level," he said.
As of January 20, 2026, the Seven Urgent Demands for Economic Emergency have been signed by 436 economists and 262 non-economists from Indonesia and abroad.
The following are the seven points outlined in the statement:
1. Thorough improvement on budget misallocation and reorient spending toward appropriate and proportional programs.
2. Restore the independence and transparency and ensure no selfish intervention in various state institutions (Bank Indonesia, Statistics Indonesia, DPR, Supreme Court, Constitutional Court, KPK, BPK, the prosecutor's offices), and restore state officials to their proper mandates and functions.
3. Halt state dominance that risks weakening local economic activities, including the involvement of Danantara, state-owned enterprises, the military, and the police as high-ranking officials, thus making the market uncompetitive and potentially displacing local jobs, the MSME ecosystem, the private sector, and erode the social capital.
4. Deregulate policies, permits, licensing, and streamline bureaucratic procedures that hinder the creation of a conducive business and investment climate.
5. Prioritize policies that address inequalities in various dimensions.
6. Restore evidence-based and technocratic process-based policies in decision-making and eradicate populist programs that disrupt fiscal stability and prudence (such as Free Nutritious Meals, Red-White Village Cooperatives, people's schools, downstreaming, energy subsidies and compensation, and Danantara).
7. Improve the quality of institutions, build public trust, and improve governance, state officials, and democracy, including eradicating conflicts of interest and rent-seeking practices.
Read: Indonesian Minister Links 79,000 Layoffs in 2025 to Slow Economy
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