Jakarta. Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa said the government will take firm action against an awardee of the Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP) scholarship whose social media post, deemed insulting toward Indonesia, has gone viral.

Purbaya said the ministry is considering placing the individual on a blacklist, effectively preventing her from working in any government institution. “Later, I will blacklist her. She will not be able to enter any government institution. We will see what form the blacklist will take. So do not insult your own country,” Purbaya said during a press conference on the state budget program APBN KiTa in Jakarta on Monday.

The government is also weighing the option of requiring the awardee to repay the education funds, along with interest. Purbaya stressed that LPDP funding comes from taxpayers’ money and state debt financing.

According to him, the incident should serve as a lesson for LPDP awardees to uphold proper conduct and ethics.

“With fair treatment, I hope LPDP awardees in the future can be wiser. If you do not like something, that is fine, but do not insult the country,” he said.

Purbaya also dismissed overly pessimistic views about Indonesia’s future, expressing confidence that the national economy will be significantly stronger in around two decades.

“Some have mocked, including the one who said her child should not become an Indonesian citizen. It is possible that in 20 years she will regret it, because by then our condition will be far better,” he said. He added that the government is reinforcing long-term economic foundations through stronger fiscal policy, financial system stability and improvements in human capital quality.

The controversy emerged after a social media post by Dwi Sasetyaningtyas, an alumna of the Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) and LPDP awardee, drew public attention. In her post, she wrote that she would seek foreign citizenship for her child, stating, “It is enough that I am an Indonesian citizen, not my children.”

In response, LPDP said it will summon Arya Iwantoro, Dwi’s husband and also an LPDP alumnus, over allegations that he has yet to fulfill his post-study contribution obligations.

Arya currently works as a researcher in the United Kingdom after completing his doctoral studies in Utrecht, the Netherlands, in 2022. Under LPDP regulations, awardees are required to serve in Indonesia for a period calculated as twice the length of their study plus one year (2N+1).

The case has sparked widespread debate on social media over the commitment of state scholarship awardees, their service obligations and broader perceptions of Indonesia’s economic future.