Jakarta. President Prabowo Subianto recently defended the country’s military spending, which the public had pointed out as being mammoth-sized, saying that it is still smaller than Singapore’s.

In a hand-picked media interview session at his residence, Prabowo responded to a question on the rationale behind the recent budget hike and the upsize of combat battalions.

The government earmarked around Rp 187 trillion ($10.5 billion) for the Defense Ministry in 2026, with the money set to skyrocket to Rp 189 trillion ($10.6 billion) next year. The 2027 spending on overall defense purposes is expected to near Rp 329.5 trillion ($18.6 billion).

Prabowo — known for his ambitions of upgrading the country's ageing military fleet — dismissed the overspending concerns.

“Our [defense] budget is actually among the smallest in ASEAN. Despite the hike, it is not close to 2% of our gross domestic product [GDP]. Ours has always been at around 0.9% of the GDP for decades,” Prabowo said.

“Singapore has consistently kept its military spending at around 3% [of GDP] for decades. What does that mean? Singapore is a small island nation, but views its independence as something crucial. They don’t mind the 3% ratio because they don’t want to be dominated by another country.” 

Prabowo framed the combat battalion expansion as a necessary move to protect against illegal logging, mining, and narcotics trafficking, citing Indonesia’s size as a 17,000-island archipelago. His administration wants to set up a battalion in each regency.

The ex-army general pointed out that the rule of thumb is to have a military size that is 1% of its population. In other words, Indonesia should have around 2.9 million personnel. The current figure is still trailing behind at around 404,000 individuals, according to a 2024 estimate.

“Every night, tens of thousands of foreign vessels enter our waters. They claim they are fishing, but hey, we don’t know if they are smuggling drugs or weapons,” Prabowo said.

Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong not long ago revealed plans to keep the defense budget at 3% of GDP. His government is ready to “spend more” if circumstances call for it.

The ratio for the Philippines is at 1.3% of the GDP. Malaysia and Thailand keep the cap at around 1%.

"We don't want to disturb others, but we have to protect ourselves, especially our natural resources," Prabowo remarked.

Add as a preferred source on Google +