The Dangerous Populism of Dedi Mulyadi

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - WEST Java Governor Dedi Mulyadi is an example of a regional head who uses simplistic logic when implementing public policy. In order to reduce juvenile delinquency, he sent misbehaving students to military barracks. In order to redistribute wealth, he proposed giving every family a share of the regional budget.

In a speech before the All-Indonesia Association of Regional Legislative Council Conference at the beginning of May 2025, Dedi claimed that fiscal management brings about prosperity. If he were Governor of Jakarta, he said, he would give every family Rp10 million. In Dedi’s calculations, with a regional annual budget of Rp90 trillion, Jakarta could afford to pay salaries to 2.8 million households.

Dedi’s logic is dangerous. Simply distributing regional budget funds without a budget mechanism is in violation of the State Finance Law. Law No. 17/2003 details how regional budgets are used for development financing and funding. There are mechanisms for grants and social assistance, but government’s grants are provided to institutions, while social aids are allocated for poor residents.

In developed nations, tax revenues are returned to the people in the form of guaranteed health care, education, infrastructure and basic services. This gives every citizen the freedom to seek a livelihood and self-actualize. States become trusted institutions to manage public funds for the common good.

Dedi Mulyadi takes a simplistic view that the public is simply a static object that will not react in the face of policy intervention. He told the Provincial Legislative Council that distribution of regional budgets was a form of fiscal justice to accelerate development and bring prosperity.

Perhaps, Dedi Mulyadi has a habit of trying instant methods to solve societal problems. When he was Regent of Purwakarta from 2008 to 2018, without sufficient research, he ordered that schools in the countryside should start earlier than those in cities. Through Regent Regulation No. 69/2015, he ordered students to fast on Mondays and Thursdays.

As a result, as of when Dedi left office, the Purwakarta human development index had not improved its ‘moderate’ rating. A study in the January 2022 edition of the Journal of Indonesian Education concluded that Dedi Mulyadi’s ‘character education’ was hampered by many factors, particularly because it was controversial and there was not enough information provided to the public. Dedi felt it is enough if his public policies received likes and increased followers on his YouTube channel.

He also tried his instant methods in West Java. On a surface level, the people were entertained seeing a governor acting so quickly in all matters. When he met poor people with many children, Dedi came up with the idea of vasectomies as a precondition for receiving social assistance. And when Bekasi was hit with flooding at the beginning of March 2025, he revoked tourism permits in Puncak, Bogor, despite not having the authority to do so.

Dedi Mulyadi’s style of leadership might be an effective way to attract sympathy, because people are easily dazzled by leaders who are populist but do not address the roots of the problem. With a team documenting his every activity and with the assistance of social media algorithms, he bewitches netizens so they keep watching their phone screens. He has fans who faithfully praise all his content.

Dedi does not care about the psychological impact or the stigma for the students he sends to military barracks. He does not care that his decisions and policies are issued without any consultations with public institutions and in violation of regulations. Arbitrary public policy has damaged the governance and management of the bureaucracy.

Dedi’s one-man-show approach only touches on the symptoms, not the core problems. In West Java, 7.08 percent of the 50.3 million people are categorized as poor, the second highest total after East Java. Lack of access to education and housing as well as low quality human resources are some of the causes behind the poverty in the region.

Instead of focusing on the roots of these problems, Dedi Mulyadi is busying himself with instant problems that he manages in a superficial way. He is seen everywhere, but does not actually solve anything. We know this is an effective way to garner public sympathy because it was used by Joko Widodo since he became Mayor of Solo until he became a former president.

Read the Complete Story in Tempo English Magazine

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