EID UL-FITR REFLECTION 1447 AH / 2026 CE

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Laa ilaaha illallahu Allahu Akbar,

Allahu Akbar wa Lillahil Hamd.

Returning to Fitrah, Weaving New Hope

When the Ied day arrived, the sky felt brighter than ever. The sound of takbir resounds in every corner of the land, stirring the hearts of those who have been tried throughout a month of patience and sincerity. Eid ul-Fitr has arrived—the long-awaited day, the crowning glory of all the striving that Ramadan demands.

Yet behind the outpouring of joy, there is a question we ought to ask ourselves with honesty: Have we truly returned to our fitrah?

 
I. The Meaning of Fitrah We So Often Forget

The term “Eid ul-Fitr” is commonly understood to mean “the festival of breaking the fast”—and so it is. Yet the word fitri derives from the Arabic root fitrah—the original purity, the innate goodness that Allah placed within every soul at birth. Every child enters this world in a state of pristine innocence, with a heart as clear and unblemished as a brand-new mirror.

The journey of life then arrives in all its varied hues: the temptations of the world, heedlessness, wrath, pride, and sins that gradually cloud that mirror. Ramadan comes as a workshop of the soul—a full month during which we are invited to cleanse that mirror once more, to polish it through fasting, night prayers, charity, and sincere repentance.

Eid ul-Fitr is the day on which we ought to stand as renewed human beings—not merely in a change of garments, but in a change of habits, a change of perspective, and a fresh commitment to Allah and to one another.

 
II. The Lessons of Ramadan We Must Not Leave Behind

For a whole month, we fasted. We abstained from food and drink from dawn until sunset. Yet true fasting is not merely refraining from eating and drinking—it is a discipline of restraint from all that distances us from Allah: holding the tongue from backbiting, guarding the eyes from what is forbidden, and keeping the heart free from envy and spite.

For a month, we were taught that a human being is capable of far more than they realise. We were able to rise in the final third of the night to supplicate in solitude. We were able to give to those in need, even whilst fasting ourselves. We were able to restrain the desires that we had long allowed to reign over us.

The question now is: will all of this come to an end today? Will we, the moment Shawwal begins, revert to the very same people we were before Ramadan?

The scholars have said that the sign of one’s Ramadan being accepted is that they become better after Ramadan—not a return to who they were before, and certainly not a regression. Eid ul-Fitr is not the finishing line; it is the starting line of a more meaningful life.

III. Sincere Forgiveness, Not Mere Tradition

One of the most beautiful customs of Eid ul-Fitr is the seeking and granting of forgiveness. We shake hands, embrace one another, and offer words of reconciliation. Yet have we truly forgiven? Not merely mouthing pleasant words whilst the heart still nurses a grudge or carries the weight of old wounds?

To forgive is a mark of greatness of spirit. The Prophet ﷺ  said that the strongest person is not the one who overpowers others in a fight, but the one who can govern themselves when overcome by anger. Forgiving is not a sign of weakness—it is the highest form of strength a human being can possess.

On this blessed day, let us find the courage to forgive: to forgive our parents for their shortcomings, to forgive siblings and friends who have caused us pain, and even to forgive ourselves for the weaknesses and transgressions of the past. A heart unburdened by resentment is a heart prepared to receive the mercy of Allah.

 

IV. Hope for a Better Tomorrow

We celebrate Eid ul-Fitr 1447 AH in a world that continues to move rapidly and is filled with uncertainty. In many corners of the globe, our brothers and sisters still endure hunger, conflict, and suffering. Closer to home, there are still many who are in need of a helping hand.

The spirit of Eid ul-Fitr ought to compel us not only to give thanks for the blessings we enjoy, but also to extend our compassion to others. The zakat fitrah we fulfilled before the Eid prayer is a living symbol that our own joy remains incomplete so long as others continue to suffer.

Let us make this Eid ul-Fitr the turning point at which we become more caring, more generous, more honest in our work, and more trustworthy in discharging our responsibilities — whether as individuals, as members of our families, or as part of the wider community.

Dear brothers and sisters in faith,

Eid ul-Fitr is not merely about ketupat, new clothes, and festive envelopes. It is about the awakening of the soul. It is about our return to our truest selves—as humble servants of Allah, as human beings who cherish one another, as stewards upon this earth who bear their responsibilities with honour.

May Allah accept all our acts of worship throughout Ramadan. May we be counted amongst those who have returned to fitrah—clean, pure, and ready to face the days ahead with greater resolve. And may this Eid ul-Fitr be the finest we have ever celebrated.

تَقَبَّلَ اللَّهمِنَّا وَمِنْكُمْ

Taqabbalallahu minna wa minkum—May Allah accept (our worship) from us and from you.

Happy Eid ul-Fitr 1447 AH

Minal Aidin Wal Faizin

Bahasa

Widening Indonesia’s National Budget Deficit

Fiscal policy represents one of the government’s principal instruments for managing the national economy. A budget deficit—the condition in which government expenditure exceeds revenue—is a strategic choice frequently made, particularly when facing economic pressures, the need for large-scale infrastructure investment, or crises requiring immediate fiscal intervention.

Indonesia, as a developing nation aspiring to achieve advanced-economy status by 2045, faces a complex fiscal dilemma. On one hand, spending requirements for infrastructure, education, healthcare, and social protection are enormous. On the other hand, the state’s revenue capacity remains constrained, with the tax-to-GDP ratio hovering around 10–11%—well below the OECD average of 34%.

The current 3% of GDP deficit ceiling reflects a compromise between spending needs and fiscal prudence. Nevertheless, a wide range of stakeholders—academics, international institutions, and politicians alike—frequently debate whether this threshold remains relevant, and whether a measured widening could accelerate development without sacrificing economic stability.

This essay aims to provide a balanced, evidence-based analysis of the various aspects—both positive and negative—of a policy to widen Indonesia’s budget deficit across several distinct scenarios.

THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK AND INDONESIA’S FISCAL CONTEXT

Legal Constraints on the Budget Deficit

Law No. 17 of 2003 on State Finance establishes a maximum budget deficit of 3% of GDP and caps total government debt at 60% of GDP. These thresholds align with the Maastricht Criteria applied by the European Union, reflecting Indonesia’s commitment to fiscal discipline since the Reform Era (Reformasi).

In extraordinary circumstances, the government has previously granted exceptions. During the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2022), through Government Regulation in Lieu of Law No. 1 of 2020 (subsequently enacted as Law No. 2 of 2020), the 3% ceiling was suspended and the deficit reached 6.14% of GDP in 2020—the highest in Indonesia’s modern history. The government set a fiscal consolidation target of returning to the 3% threshold by 2023, which was successfully achieved. 

Current Fiscal Conditions

Indicator	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024*
Deficit (% of GDP)	-2.20%	-6.14%	-4.57%	-2.38%	-1.65%	-2.70%
Debt Ratio (% of GDP)	29.8%	38.5%	41.0%	39.7%	38.6%	39.2%
Tax Ratio (% of GDP)	9.8%	8.3%	9.1%	10.4%	10.2%	10.3%
Economic Growth	5.02%	-2.07%	3.69%	5.31%	5.05%	5.00%
Inflation	2.72%	1.68%	1.87%	5.51%	2.61%	2.51%

 Table 1. Key Fiscal Indicators for Indonesia, 2019–2024 (* estimates) | Sources: BPS, Ministry of Finance, Bank Indonesia

MULTI-SCENARIO DEFICIT ANALYSIS

To provide a comprehensive analysis, this essay organises its discussion around four distinct deficit scenarios, each characterised by a different profile of risks and opportunities.

Scenario	Deficit Threshold	Additional Fiscal Space*	Risk Level
Scenario A	3% – 4% of GDP	IDR 150–180 trillion	Moderate
Scenario B	4% – 5% of GDP	IDR 300–350 trillion	Significant
Scenario C	5% – 6% of GDP	IDR 450–500 trillion	High
Scenario D	Above 6% of GDP	> IDR 600 trillion	Very High

 Table 2. Summary of Deficit Scenarios | *Estimated additional fiscal space relative to the 3% of GDP ceiling

Scenario A: Deficit of 3–4% of GDP (Measured Expansion)

Positive Aspects and Advantages

• Provides additional fiscal space of approximately IDR 150–180 trillion per annum, which can be allocated to infrastructure, healthcare, and education spending without compromising other priority programmes.

• The crowding-out effect on the private sector remains relatively limited, as the additional financing requirement can still be absorbed by the market without placing significant upward pressure on interest rates.

• The risk to fiscal reputation remains contained: international credit rating agencies—Fitch, Moody’s, and S&P—would generally maintain Indonesia’s investment-grade status, provided the widening is temporary and accompanied by a credible consolidation plan.

• The resulting economic stimulus could raise GDP growth by 0.2–0.5 percentage points through the fiscal multiplier effect of government spending, particularly in the construction and services sectors.

Negative Aspects and Disadvantages

• Requires an amendment to, or exception from, the State Finance Law—sending a negative signal regarding Indonesia’s long-term fiscal commitment.

• Moderate pressure on the Indonesian rupiah, particularly if the additional deficit financing is reliant on foreign investors who are sensitive to changes in global conditions (risk-off episodes).

• Precedent effect: once the threshold is relaxed, political pressure to continue widening it in the future becomes considerably stronger, creating a risk of entrenched deficit bias that is difficult to control.

Scenario B: Deficit of 4–5% of GDP (Aggressive Expansion)

Positive Aspects and Advantages

• The significant additional fiscal space (IDR 300–350 trillion) could fund large-scale transformation programmes, such as acceleration of industrial downstream processing, the development of the new capital city Nusantara (IKN), and ambitious social programmes—such as a nationwide free nutritious meals scheme—at full scale.

• If directed towards high-multiplier expenditure (productive infrastructure, research and technology, human capital development), this could drive growth towards the 6–7% of GDP range per annum—the rate required to escape the middle-income trap.

• In the context of a global economic slowdown, fiscal expansion at this level could serve as an effective buffer, reducing Indonesia’s dependence on volatile commodity exports.

Negative Aspects and Disadvantages

• A dramatic increase in financing requirements would put upward pressure on Government Securities (SBN) yields. An estimated rise of 50–100 basis points could significantly increase government borrowing costs and worsen debt sustainability dynamics.

• The risk of a credit rating downgrade becomes real. Loss of investment-grade status could trigger a massive capital outflow from the SBN and equity markets, sharply weakening the rupiah and worsening inflation.

• The domestic economy’s absorptive capacity has limits: if government expenditure surges more rapidly than productive capacity, the resulting inflationary pressure will erode the very benefits of the fiscal stimulus.

Scenarios C & D: Deficit of 5–6% and Above 6% of GDP (Extreme Expansion)

Positive Aspects (Limited)

• In a clearly defined emergency—such as a catastrophic natural disaster or a global financial crisis—extreme fiscal expansion may be the only available instrument to prevent economic collapse, as demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

• The very substantial spending capacity could, in theory, simultaneously finance the structural transformation of the economy: renewable energy, digitalisation, and industrialisation within a single budgetary period.

 

Negative Aspects and Disadvantages (Dominant)

• Disproportionate fiscal risk: at this level, financing requirements exceed the capacity of the domestic market, compelling the government to rely on foreign-currency-denominated external debt—increasing currency mismatch and the risk of a balance-sheet crisis.

• Strong and persistent inflationary pressure, which could force Bank Indonesia to raise interest rates sharply, thereby suppressing private sector growth momentum.

• Debt spiral: sharply rising interest payments crowd out productive expenditure in future budgets, creating a vicious cycle of fiscal dependency.

• Loss of market and investor confidence: at this deficit level, Indonesia risks a sudden stop in external financing, forcing an abrupt fiscal adjustment far more painful than a planned consolidation.

MACROECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE

Impact on Economic Growth

Keynesian theory holds that government expenditure carries a multiplier effect on the broader economy. However, the magnitude of this multiplier depends heavily on economic conditions, the structure of financing, and the quality of expenditure. Research by Barro (1990) and Blanchard & Leigh (2013) demonstrates that fiscal multipliers in developing economies tend to be larger (1.2–1.5x) when the output gap is negative and interest rates are low.

Indonesia faces an enormous infrastructure investment gap—estimated at USD 1.6 trillion through to 2030. A wider deficit, if channelled into high-quality infrastructure spending, has the potential to generate a return on investment exceeding the cost of debt financing, yielding a net benefit to the economy.

However, these positive effects are only realised if expenditure quality is maintained. Indonesia’s historical experience reveals that low budget absorption rates and fiscal leakage through corruption significantly reduce the effectiveness of fiscal stimulus.

4.2 Inflation Dynamics and Macroeconomic Stability

A significant widening of the deficit can create demand-pull inflationary pressures, particularly if domestic productive capacity cannot absorb the surge in demand. In the context of Indonesia’s continued reliance on imports of capital goods and raw materials, a depreciation of the rupiah triggered by deficit pressures would compound cost-push inflationary forces.

Bank Indonesia would face a policy dilemma: raising interest rates to defend price stability and the exchange rate would suppress economic growth and increase the government’s debt-servicing burden. Conversely, allowing a large fiscal expansion without monetary adjustment risks undermining the credibility of the inflation targeting framework that has been painstakingly built up over many years.

FINANCIAL AND BOND MARKET PERSPECTIVE

Dynamics of the Government Securities (SBN) Market

Indonesia is heavily reliant on the SBN market to finance its budget deficit. Foreign ownership of domestic SBN has historically accounted for 30–40% of total outstanding stock—one of the highest proportions amongst developing economies—making Indonesia highly vulnerable to shifts in global investor sentiment.

A significant increase in the deficit would drive up the supply of SBN. If demand does not grow proportionately, yields will rise, increasing government interest costs and potentially triggering a crowding-out effect on private investment. Estimates suggest that each additional 1% of GDP in deficit could push SBN yields up by 30–60 basis points under normal market conditions.

 

Refinancing Risk and Debt Management

 

Indonesia’s debt maturity profile requires careful management. With an average SBN maturity of approximately 8–9 years, the government must regularly refinance substantial amounts. A higher deficit means a faster accumulation of debt and a larger future refinancing requirement—creating a more significant rollover risk.

Diversification of financing instruments is therefore crucial: green bonds, sukuk, and other innovative instruments can broaden the investor base. However, each new instrument requires time for market development and carries its own pricing premium.

Deficit Scenario	Est. Yield Increase	Impact on Debt Servicing	Foreign Ownership Risk
3–4% of GDP	+30 – 50 bps	Manageable	Moderate
4–5% of GDP	+50 – 100 bps	Significant	High
5–6% of GDP	+100 – 200 bps	Burdensome	Very High
Above 6% of GDP	>200 bps	Unsustainable	Extreme

 Table 3. Estimated Impact of Deficit on the Bond Market | *Estimates based on historical analysis and fiscal modelling

POLITICAL AND FISCAL POLICY PERSPECTIVE

The Political Economy of the Deficit

Budget deficits carry a political dimension that cannot be disregarded. In general, politicians face asymmetric incentives: the benefits of government spending (particularly social transfers and subsidies) are felt directly by voters, whilst the costs of deficit financing are dispersed into the future and remain indirect. This creates a structural bias towards overspending and chronic fiscal deficits.

In the Indonesian context, the APBN deliberation process is an intensely politicised exercise. A broad governing coalition in the House of Representatives (DPR) facilitates the passage of budgets, but also creates pressure to accommodate the interests of numerous factions—which can inflate expenditure and drive the deficit wider.

6.2 Implications for Bank Indonesia’s Independence

An excessively expansionary fiscal policy can threaten the independence of the central bank. When the deficit balloons and market financing becomes difficult to secure at affordable rates, pressure on Bank Indonesia to purchase government securities directly (debt monetisation) intensifies. This precedent is dangerous: uncontrolled debt monetisation is one of the primary causes of hyperinflation throughout economic history.

 

Governance and Expenditure Quality

The effectiveness of fiscal stimulus from a wider deficit depends critically on the quality of public expenditure governance. Indonesia continues to face serious challenges in this regard, including: low budget absorption capacity at the regional level; corruption that erodes the value of public spending; the rigidity of mandatory spending, which narrows the space for productive expenditure; and significant disparities in planning capacity between central and regional governments.

Without fundamental improvements in governance, a wider deficit will simply enlarge an inefficient budget, rather than accelerating development.

Experiences of Developing Economies

Several developing economies have experienced the consequences of an uncontrolled deficit. Sri Lanka (2022) suffered a fiscal crisis and sovereign default following a combination of chronic fiscal deficits, poorly planned tax cuts, and the pandemic—which drained the country’s foreign exchange reserves. Argentina represents the classic case of a country that has repeatedly experienced crises as a result of fiscal indiscipline.

Conversely, India has managed to sustain a deficit in the range of 5–6% of GDP for several years whilst maintaining robust economic growth, underpinned by a deep domestic market and investor confidence maintained through consistent policy communication.

Country	Avg. Deficit (2019–2023)	Avg. Growth	Credit Rating	Notes
Indonesia	2.9% of GDP	3.4% p.a.	BBB/Baa2	Post-pandemic consolidation
India	6.5% of GDP	5.1% p.a.	BBB-/Baa3	Deep domestic market
Brazil	7.2% of GDP	1.2% p.a.	BB-/Ba2	Recurring fiscal crises
Malaysia	4.1% of GDP	3.8% p.a.	A-/A3	Relatively sound debt management
Sri Lanka	9.8% of GDP	-0.6% p.a.	SD/Ca	Default 2022
Germany	1.1% of GDP	0.8% p.a.	AAA/Aaa	Debt brake policy

Table 4. International Fiscal Comparisons | Source: IMF World Economic Outlook, 2024

Lessons from Europe: The Maastricht Criteria and Their Flexibility

The European Union, which inspired Indonesia’s 3% of GDP ceiling, has itself undergone an evolution in the application of its fiscal rules. Following the European debt crisis of 2010–2012 and the COVID-19 pandemic, the EU introduced greater flexibility through a revised Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) in 2024, allowing member states to establish more realistic fiscal consolidation paths tailored to their individual circumstances.

The key lesson is this: it is not the size of the deficit alone that determines fiscal sustainability, but rather the combination of: the state’s revenue capacity; the quality and productivity of expenditure; the depth and liquidity of domestic financial markets; and the credibility and consistency of fiscal policy over the long term. 

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Synthesis

Based on the multidimensional analysis conducted, it can be concluded that the question is not merely ‘what is the optimal deficit threshold’, but rather ‘how can Indonesia build the fiscal capacity to support sustainable development.’ Widening the deficit can be an effective instrument if, and only if, it is pursued within an appropriate framework.

 

Policy Recommendations

• Conditional deficit widening: Should a wider deficit be pursued, it must be accompanied by a clear sunset clause, automatic fiscal rules, and measurable allocations strictly limited to high-multiplier expenditure whose benefits can be independently verified.

• Strengthening the domestic capital market: Deepening the SBN market through the development of domestic institutional investors (pension funds, insurance companies) in order to reduce dependence on volatile foreign investors.

• Public expenditure reform: Improving the quality and efficiency of government spending through strengthened procurement systems, performance-based regional transfer mechanisms, and better-targeted subsidy reform.

• Structured fiscal-monetary coordination: Establishing clear coordination mechanisms between the Ministry of Finance and Bank Indonesia to prevent fiscal dominance from threatening monetary stability.

 

Closing Remarks

Widening the budget deficit is a double-edged sword. In the right dosage and context, it can serve as a transformative catalyst for growth. However, without strong institutional foundations, consistent revenue reform, and accountable governance, excessive fiscal expansion will merely transfer the burden from the present generation to future ones—a form of intergenerational inequity that cannot be justified even by the most compelling development rationale.

Indonesia does have room to operate more flexibly in the management of its public finances, but the ability and legitimacy to use that room must be earned through a consistent track record of sound policy—not seized instantaneously through the mere relaxation of a legal threshold.

REFERENCES

Barro, R. J. (1990). Government Spending in a Simple Model of Endogenous Growth. Journal of Political Economy, 98(5).

Blanchard, O., & Leigh, D. (2013). Growth Forecast Errors and Fiscal Multipliers. American Economic Review, 103(3).

IMF. (2024). World Economic Outlook: Steady but Slow. International Monetary Fund.

Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia. (2024). Budget Note and Draft State Budget (RAPBN) 2025. Kemenkeu.

OECD. (2023). Revenue Statistics 2023. OECD Publishing.

Republic of Indonesia. Law No. 17 of 2003 on State Finance.

World Bank. (2024). Indonesia Economic Prospects: Strengthening the Foundation. World Bank Group.

Bahasa

If a Punctured Tyre Could Speak

On an unremarkable morning at the roadside, a puncture repair man crouches low. His hands are black with grease. Beside him lie the old patches—vulcanised rubber that once served as solutions, now peeling away one by one. He is not building a new road. He is not replacing the tyre. He is patching—again and again and again—the same hole, in the same place, with the same conviction that this time his repair will hold.

When a political figure is dubbed the puncture repair man by his own people—whether in the banter of a roadside stall, the comments beneath an online post, or the editorial columns of a newspaper—it is not merely a spontaneous insult hurled in frustration. Within it lies a theory of leadership: that this leader works only at the surface, not at the root; that he responds to leaks rather than preventing them; that his governance is a succession of emergency measures that never matures into structural reform.

This essay is born of an intellectual curiosity about the workings of metaphor within the discourse of leadership—how a single symbol can strike so deeply at the heart of public perception, and what is concealed or indeed revealed when one image is chosen above another. It should be stated plainly that the metaphor of the "puncture repairman" as employed in this essay is in no way directed at President Prabowo Subianto.

Language is the house of truth, and within the metaphor dwells the most honest of perceptions.

— freely paraphrased from Martin Heidegger

THE PUNCTURE REPAIRMAN 

A Metaphorical Essay on Leadership

Symbol, and the Ways a Nation Perceives Its Leaders

I. The Anatomy of a Metaphor: Meaning in Layers

1.1 The Literal Meaning: A Trade at the Crossroads

Taken literally, the puncture repair man is an informal worker operating at the roadside, offering his services to those whose tyres have failed them. He is there because he is needed. He appears in moments of minor crisis—when a vehicle halts without warning, when a journey is suddenly threatened. His presence is reactive by nature: he is never there before the tyre goes flat.

Within the informal economy of Indonesia, the puncture repair man occupies a singular position: he is a micro-entrepreneur surviving in the gaps of the system, uncovered by social insurance, unregistered with any ministry, yet indispensable precisely because poorly maintained roads continue to produce punctures without end. In other words, he sustains his livelihood from a systemic failure that is never permanently resolved.

The first irony presents itself at once: if the roads were properly repaired, the puncture repairman would lose his trade. There is, then, a kind of vested interest in the perpetuation of defective conditions.

 

1.2 The Symbolic Meaning: Leadership as Perpetual Emergency

When this metaphor is applied to a leader, it carries the whole of that framework with it. The leader-as-puncture-repair-man implies:

First, leadership that is reactive rather than transformative. It moves after the crisis, not before. Policy is born of leakage, not of planning.

Second, solutions that are temporary by nature. A patch is an interim promise, not a resolution. It may hold for a month, or it may burst tomorrow morning again.

Third, an inability to perceive the larger picture. The puncture repair man works with his head bent low, focused on a single point of failure. He is not redesigning the vehicle.

Fourth, a diminished social standing. Within the social hierarchies of Indonesian life, informal roadside labour carries an implicit lowness of status—and to affix such an attribute to a head of state is a contradiction both sharp and entirely deliberate.

 

1.3 The Satirical Register: Between Laughter and Fury

Indonesian satire habitually operates in the register of guyon pait—bitter comedy: laughter felt in the mouth, a wound felt in the chest. The epithet puncture repair man is not a crude insult; it is criticism wrapped in humour, the better to circulate freely, the harder to refute, and the longer to be remembered. 

There is a long tradition in Indonesian political life—from the mocking pantun of the colonial era to the banned caricatures of the New Order—in which people employ oblique language to voice dissatisfaction that cannot be expressed head-on. The puncture repair man metaphor continues this tradition: it formally accuses nothing yet communicates everything.

The humour works because of the glaring incongruity it produces: the enormity of the office set against the meanness of the image (a man crouching at the roadside, a patch-kit in hand, a temporary hope in his pocket). The greater the distance between reality and symbol, the louder the laughter—and the deeper the wound.

II. Social Connotations: Why This Symbol Cuts So Deep

2.1 Class and Dignity: A Map That Is Never Neutral

Indonesia is a society acutely conscious of class, even when it declines to acknowledge the fact openly. The choice of a profession as metaphor is never neutral: it always carries with it a complete social atlas. When someone is called the architect of the nation, he is positioned within the intellectual class—those who design the future from above. When he is called the puncture repair man, he is positioned at the roadside—not in the conference chamber, not behind the planner's desk, but beneath the full heat of the sun, amidst exhaust fumes and dust. 

More pointed still: in the popular imagination, the trade of puncture repair is associated with a powerlessness to alter the system. The puncture repair man possesses neither the capital, the access, nor the authority to mend roads, to manufacture quality tyres, or to regulate the flow of traffic. He can only respond to the damage that arrives before him. To attach this metaphor to a leader is to say: he labours within a system he himself cannot—or will not—change.

 

2.2 Masculinity and the Expectations of Power

There is, too, a dimension of gender worth examining. In the political culture of Indonesia—and this holds across the ideological spectrum—the ideal leader is habitually portrayed through images of vigour: decisive, visionary, standing erect, gazing far towards the horizon. Sukarno, with his oratory ablaze. Suharto with his flat, authoritative stare.

The puncture repair man crouches. He does not stand erect. He does not gaze at the horizon. He stares at a small hole in the road before him. This choice of posture—though never stated explicitly—contributes powerfully to an image of leadership that is limp, lacking in authority, trapped in petty particulars. This is not merely a matter of class; it is a matter of the masculine codes of power that operate within our political culture.

 

2.3 Time and Vision: Who Is Looking Ahead?

The puncture repair man works within a very short temporal horizon: this tyre, right now, so that the vehicle can move again today. He is not thinking about next year, let alone the generation that follows. In the discourse of leadership, long-term vision is one of the principal distinguishing marks of the great leader as against the merely competent one.

This metaphor, therefore, is not simply a criticism of style but a criticism of substance: that the leadership in question neither possesses nor is capable of implementing a structural strategy that transcends the daily crisis. That it lives in fire-fighting mode, attending to one puncture after another, never once pausing to ask: why do these tyres keep going flat?

III. Metaphorical Contrasts: When a Different Symbol Is Chosen

To understand fully what the puncture repair man metaphor does, we must set it against other available metaphors of leadership—those that have been used of the same figure at different moments, or those that might plausibly have been chosen instead.

 

3.1 The Architect: Vision from an Elevation

To call a leader an architect is to suppose a person who possesses the blueprint—who understands the structure in its entirety before a single brick is laid. He works at the drawing board before he descends to the site. He is designing not for today, but for decades hence.

The connotations are clear: intellectual, deliberate, long-term, technically accomplished. The architect does not crouch at the roadside—he stands at the top of the scaffolding, or sits in an air-conditioned office gazing upon the scale model of the city he intends to build.

When a leader is called the architect of reform or the architect of development, the public perception that forms is of a leader who possesses a grand design—one whose actions today are constituent parts of something far larger. Partial failures can be forgiven because construction takes time; minor miscalculations can be tolerated because even the builder of great edifices occasionally misjudges a beam.

 

3.2 The Helmsman: Command in the Midst of the Storm

The metaphor of the helmsman — or the ship's captain — is among the most universal figures of leadership. It supposes a person who holds the wheel in conditions of uncertainty, who knows the bearing the vessel must keep even when the waves cannot be predicted.

The connotations are again distinct: courage, composure under pressure, goal-orientation, and legitimate authority over the crew. The helmsman, too, works reactively — he responds to the storm — but he does so from a position of command, not of crouching supplication. And there is a clear destination: the harbour.

What is particularly instructive here is that the helmsman and the puncture repairman both respond to a crisis. Yet one does so standing at the bridge with a compass in hand, whilst the other does so crouching on the tarmac with a rusted tool. It is the contextualisation of the crisis that determines the perception.

 

3.3 The Physician: Diagnosis Before Treatment

Leadership, imagined as the physician, carries more ambiguous connotations, yet ones that remain considerably more dignified than the puncture repairman. The physician diagnoses before he treats; he understands the disease more deeply than his patient does; he works according to a scientific protocol rather than by instinct alone.

Yet the physician metaphor, too, admits of a negative reading: the doctor who treats symptoms without addressing causes. In the discourse of public health, this is the distinction between the curative and the preventive approach—and the same criticism may be directed at a leader: is he curing the disease, or merely suppressing the symptoms?

Tellingly, even in its negative form, the physician who treats only symptoms retains a dignity denied to the puncture repair man. The physician, at least, possesses a degree, a consulting room, and a recognised social standing. The social hierarchy embedded within the metaphor speaks more loudly than the content of the criticism itself.

 

3.4 The Fire-Fighter: A Respected Reactivity

Here lies the most instructive comparison of all: the fire-fighter and the puncture repair man are functionally very similar—both reactive, both crisis-driven, both at work after something has already broken or burned. Yet their social connotations are worlds apart

The firefighter is a hero. He enters the blaze. He risks his life. When a leader is called a fire-fighter, the criticism remains (he is reactive, he does not prevent fires), yet it is wrapped in admiration for his courage. The puncture repair man commands no such heroic aura; he deals with small holes, not infernos. The scale is different, and in matters of public perception, scale determines honour.

The lesson of this comparison is significant: our judgment of reactive leadership depends enormously upon the scale of the threat being addressed. A leader who responds to a great crisis—war, pandemic, natural catastrophe—swiftly and steadily will be judged heroic even if his action is reactive. A leader who appears to respond only to small problems that ought never to have arisen will be judged by a far humbler metaphor.

IV. How Symbols Shape Public Perception

4.1 Metaphor as Framing

George Lakoff, in his work on political framing, argues that metaphor is not mere ornament — it is a cognitive structure that determines how we evaluate facts. When a metaphor successfully attaches itself to a public figure, it does not simply name him; it reframes the entire history of his actions in a new and unforgiving light.

Once the puncture repair man epithet circulates widely, policies that might previously have been read as pragmatism begin to be read as incapacity. Programmes that might have been seen as a response to the needs of the people begin to appear as a result of the absence of vision. The same things—the same actions, the same figures—are read differently depending upon the metaphorical lens already fitted within the public mind.

 

4.2 Virality and the Stickiness of Symbols

An effective metaphor in the digital age possesses one indispensable quality: it is easily visualised. The puncture repair man is a concrete, universal, and instantly recognisable image—every Indonesian has seen him at the roadside. This is quite different from, say, "a leader lacking a grand design"—which is abstract, lengthy, and resistant to becoming a meme.

The viral power of this metaphor lies in its extraordinary cognitive economy: in two words, an entire critical theory of leadership is communicated. And because it can be visualised, it becomes caricature, illustration, animation—content that spreads in ways that no five-thousand-word policy analysis ever could.

 

4.3 Resilience Against Rational Rebuttal

One of the most formidable qualities of metaphor as a political weapon is its resistance to rational counterargument. If someone attacks a specific policy as a failure, the figures can be contested: growth rates, poverty indices, and infrastructural achievements. But how does one refute the epithet of puncture repair man?

To do so, one must demonstrate that this leader is not reactive, not provisional, not narrow in vision— and that demonstration requires a rhetorical effort vastly more complex than the original epithet. Meanwhile, the name has already circulated, already stuck, already raised laughter in a million WhatsApp groups.

A good metaphor is a blade sharpened but once, yet capable of cutting indefinitely.

 

4.4 The Legacy of Perception: What History Remembers

The history of leadership is more often remembered through images than through statistics. Sukarno is remembered as the lion of the podium. Suharto as the cold, impassive father of development. These metaphors become the master frame through which everything else is subsequently read.

If the puncture repair man succeeds in becoming the dominant metaphor for a leader within the collective memory of a nation, then his historical legacy will be read through that lens — even where genuine achievements exist that might, under fairer conditions, be assessed with greater equity. The symbol that attaches itself earliest endures the longest, for it is the framework within which all subsequent information is sorted and placed.

V. A Reflection: On What Is Just and What Is Not

This essay, like any satire that retains its intellectual honesty, must be willing to turn its scrutiny upon itself.

There is something unjust in the puncture repair man metaphor, and candour demands that we acknowledge it. It is unjust because it reduces the complexity of leadership to a single image. To govern a nation of hundreds of millions, with extraordinary heterogeneity, within a geopolitical and economic context of unrelenting pressure, does sometimes feel rather like repairing a tyre in the middle of a motorway that never empties.

Not every reactive response is evidence of incapacity. Not every temporary solution signals an absence of vision. There is a leadership that is precisely wise because it understands the limits of the possible—that does not pretend to possess a grand design when the conditions genuinely preclude its execution.

But herein lies the dilemma that faces every leader: public perception does not wait upon context. It does not read the budget report before forming its judgment. It feels—and what the public feels, whether correct or not, becomes the political reality that must be confronted.

The puncture repairman metaphor may not be entirely just. But it is a mirror — not one that flatters, but one that, in its caricatured and pitiless way, reflects what the people feel. And the feelings of the people, at the end of the day, constitute one of the judgment-seats from which no leader can ultimately escape.

Afterword: Patching or Building?

At the end of that road, the puncture repair man still crouches. His hands are still black. Around him, new holes continue to appear, because the asphalt was never properly laid, because the budget was redirected elsewhere, because the grand design—the blueprint for something greater—remains, it seems, perpetually deferred.

Perhaps he is not to blame. Perhaps he is doing the only thing possible with the resources at hand. Perhaps, without him, the tyres would all have burst long since, and the nation's journey would have halted far sooner than it did.

But the people do not wish merely to keep moving. They wish to arrive. And to arrive at a destination—rather than simply to persist along the road—requires more than a patch. It requires a sound tyre. A decent road. And a leader who understands the difference between deferring the collapse and building resilience.

Metaphor is the people's tribunal: it sits without a prosecutor, without a defendant present, and without the possibility of appeal. Its verdict is delivered in laughter, remembered in song, and bequeathed in stories. And within that verdict, there is concealed a wounded hope: the hope that the next leader will not crouch at the roadside, but will stand upon the foundations he himself has laid—and will invite the whole nation to stand alongside him.

[Bahasa]