JAKARTA: Indonesia may risk seeing its corruption perception index decline further this year as concerns over shrinking civic space, growing militarisation and attacks on press freedom continue to worsen under the administration of Prabowo Subianto, according to Transparency International Indonesia (TII).
The assessment comes only months after Indonesia scored 34 out of 100 in the 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) by antigraft watchdog the Transparency International, placing the country 109th among 182 countries surveyed.
It marked a three-point drop from its score in 2024. The score placed Indonesia below the global average of 42 and behind several neighboring countries, including Timor-Leste and Malaysia.
The Berlin-based watchdog measures perceived levels of public sector corruption, with higher scores indicating cleaner governance. Only halfway through 2026, however, TI Indonesia office said many of the factors behind the country's poor score last year have shown little sign of improvement.
“I’m worried the score will worsen this year because the [underlying indicators] remain largely the same,” TII secretary-general Danang Widoyoko said in a sit-down session with The Jakarta Post on Thursday (June 25) that was also attended by Transparency International chairman François Valérian.
Among the developments Danang cited was the acid attack on rights activist Andrie Yunus by Indonesian Military (TNI) soldiers in March, which he said underscored growing threats to free speech, especially those critical toward the state.
“This is a worse turn [of events than last year] because civil society organisations and the media cannot work without sufficient civic spaces,” Danang said. In the 2025 CPI report, TII attributed Indonesia’s weak score partly to shrinking civic space and concerns over judicial independence, arguing that public oversight becomes increasingly difficult when media outlets, activists and civil society groups face pressure.
The report also urged the government to protect the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) from political interference and uphold civilian supremacy by stopping the trend of military involvement in civilian institutions.
Danang said, however, that the current administration appeared less receptive to such recommendations than its previous ones, even the administration of Prabowo's direct predecessor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who saw the biggest decline of Indonesia's corruption index in 25 years.
“I was always [critical] of Jokowi, but when the CPI was released during his administration, several ministries would regularly contact us and ask what they could do better,” he said. Danang also claimed the current administration had “never followed up” on recommendations from TII and other watchdogs regarding the government's flagship free nutritious meals programme, including calls for better planning and broader public consultation.
Government Communication Agency (Bakom) head Muhammad Qodari did not immediately respond to the Post’s request for comments. The flagship programme was the main issue raised during a recent wave of student protests against the government, which centered on concerns over “misplaced” public spending, transparency and governance.
Transparency International’s Valérian said Indonesia’s experience reflected a broader global trend toward increasingly “authoritarian power”, while cautioning against prioritising large-scale projects that absorb massive public resources without accountability.
“When governments favor projects that consume enormous funding in ways that are not necessarily transparent, at the expense of health, education and infrastructure that support sustainable long-term development, that is not good for economic growth,” Valérian said. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
