In contrast to Rudy’s car, Prabowo stressed that he uses a domestically-made vehicle, valued at a much lower price.
“I am the president of Indonesia. I use a Maung car made in Indonesia. It costs 700 million (rupiah). Maybe because it’s for the president, it has bulletproof features, and might be 1 billion rupiah. But it’s nowhere near 8 billion rupiah,” he said.
Prabowo added that use of the public funds for officials’ luxury purchases undermines efficiency principles promoted by the central government, pointing to more urgent expenditures, such as constructing village bridges, that have not been met.
“Many expenditures that should be carried out by regencies and provinces are not being implemented. Take bridges, for example – village bridges. People have to protest, and the president has to step in,” Prabowo said.
“But fine, I will take responsibility. So we must be transparent, we must be fair.”
The East Kalimantan administration purchased the Range Rover 3.0 Autobiography LWB in November 2025. It costs seven times more than Prabowo’s official presidential vehicle and featured off-road capabilities and a terrain response system for surfaces like mud, rocks and sand.
The standard model is priced at around 7.43 billion rupiah, with added costs depending on optional features, interior customisation, safety packages and technology upgrades.
The Range Rover complied with specifications set by the Home Ministry in 2006, which allows governors to have two official vehicles: one sedan with a maximum 3,000 cc engine and one SUV or jeep with a maximum 4,200 cc engine, Rudy said.
The vehicle remained in Jakarta after it was purchased in November 2025 and was never used in official travel or government operations, according to Head of East Kalimantan Communication and Information Agency Muhammad Faisal.
“We have communicated with the dealer, and fortunately it understands our position and has agreed to take the vehicle back,” Faisal was quoted as saying by local news outlet detik.com.
The central government cut 306.69 trillion rupiah in budget spending in January 2025, including 50.59 trillion rupiah from transfers to regions and has maintained this policy in the 2026 state budget.
The cuts have forced many regional administrations to scale back programmes and tighten spending to balance their budgets, reported local news outlet The Jakarta Post.
It also reported that Rudy’s purchase had sparked criticism from others besides the president, including member of House of Representatives Commission II Ahmad Irawan, who urged the Home Ministry to revise the 2006 regulation on governors’ official vehicles to prevent similar controversies in the future.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/prabowo-inefficient-spending-regional-officials-governor-8-billion-rupiah-official-car-6006286
