David Hutt is a research fellow at the Central European Institute of Asian Studies (CEIAS) and Southeast Asia columnist at the Diplomat. He writes the Europe Meets Southeast Asia newsletter.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, a former general with a resume that includes alleged human rights violations, announced in January that he would be hacking away $19 billion (around 8.5%) from the state budget this year. The public works ministry? A 73% cut. Other departments? Down 30% to 50%. Tens of thousands of contractors have lost their state gigs, while civil servants are apparently being ushered out of their offices by 4 p.m. -- after which the lights are quite literally switched off. As The Economist noted, Indonesia's meteorological and geophysical agency is "handy in a country with at least 127 active volcanoes," yet it has seen its budget halved.
