President Prabowo Wants to Build Special Prison for Corruptors on Remote Island

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — President Prabowo Subianto plans to build a special prison for corrupt officials on a remote island. The existence of isolated infrastructure is considered essential to ensure that corrupt individuals cannot escape their punishment.

The idea was mentioned by President Prabowo Subianto while attending the launch of the "New Mechanism for Civil Servant (ASN) Teacher Allowances Directly to Teachers' Accounts" at Plaza Insan Berprestasi, Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, Jakarta, Thursday (13/3/2025). In his speech, the President once again addressed the issue of corruption. He also committed to creating new breakthroughs to deter corrupt individuals.

According to Prabowo, corrupt individuals are not fit to remain in Indonesia. Even if they are sentenced to prison, the punishment must ensure that they cannot evade it. One solution is to establish a special prison on a remote island.

"I will also allocate funds to build a prison in a remote location. They will not be able to leave. We will find an island, and if they escape, they can meet sharks," said Prabowo.

Prabowo emphasized that the issue of corruption is the nation's greatest challenge. This is because corruption is not merely an isolated incident but also has broader impacts that harm the people. For example, it leads to budget leaks and prevents state-managed resources from reaching the public. Yet, Indonesia possesses vast resources that are sufficient to meet the needs of its citizens.

Armed with the nation's wealth, coupled with measures to reduce leakage and corruption, as well as utilizing the budget efficiently and effectively, Prabowo believes that Indonesia can be freed from poverty. Therefore, since receiving the mandate as the 8th President of the Republic of Indonesia, he has been committed to building a clean and corruption-free government.

Not only in the agenda of the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, the President once again addressed the issue of handling corruption cases upon returning to the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Thursday afternoon.

When meeting a number of university rectors who gathered at the event "Silaturahmi and Panel Discussion of the President of the Republic of Indonesia with the Rectors and Leaders of State and Private Universities" in the central courtyard of the Presidential Palace, Prabowo had time to look for Attorney General Sanitiar Burhanuddin.

When he found Burhanuddin not there, he understood because he believed the Attorney General was handling a corruption case. "The Attorney General is not here, huh? He's chasing people (corruptors)," he said jokingly.

The commitment to eradicate corruption and take firm action against corruptors is not the first time that Prabowo has conveyed it. In most of his speeches at various events, the President often mentioned this. Even in September 2024 or a month before being inaugurated as President, he had said that he would set aside a special budget to pursue corruptors who fled abroad.

"Even if they run to Antarctica, I will send special forces to look for them in Antarctica," Prabowo said at that time.

Contacted separately, researcher at the Center for Anti-Corruption Studies (Pukat) of Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Zaenur Rohman, said that from speech to speech, President Prabowo often conveys unusual ideas related to eradicating corruption. However, one idea is not related to another. Zaenur sees that this shows that the President does not have a big picture of what needs to be done to eradicate corruption.

The issue of building a special prison for corruptors, for example, is not enough to provide a deterrent effect for corruptors. So far, Indonesia has had a special prison for corruptors at the Sukamiskin Penitentiary, Bandung, West Java, but corruption cases are still massive. This is because the prison sentence for them is not accompanied by impoverishment by confiscating and recovering the assets that were corrupted.

"Corruption is an economically motivated crime, so its disincentive is not enough with just corporal punishment but also must be an economic disincentive, namely optimally seizing the assets of the crime for asset recovery. In addition, there also needs to be a very high fine," said Zaenur.

Unfortunately, Zaenur continued, there is still the problem of limited legal instruments in asset recovery. Until now, Indonesia does not have an Asset Confiscation Law. The existing Corruption Crime Law does not regulate the imposition of high fines for corruptors.

In addition to the limitations of asset recovery instruments, the state also needs to work on reforming law enforcement officers. This is crucial so that law enforcers can carry out their duties without discrimination.

"Those are some things that should be done, unfortunately they are not on the agenda offered by the President. The President only gave a bombastic speech without any follow-up," said Zaenur.