At a high-profile industrial groundbreaking event in Central Java, President Prabowo Subianto responded sharply to critics who describe Indonesia as being in decline. Rejecting the phrase “Indonesia is dark,” he declared that such critics have “blurred vision,” insisted the country is “bright,” and then went further: if they are unhappy, they should simply leave—adding, pointedly, that they could “run away to Yemen.” 

It was a moment meant to project confidence. Instead, it exposed a troubling lapse in judgment—one that reaches far beyond Indonesia’s domestic debate and directly into its relationship with the wider world.

Let’s be clear: this was not just an attack on critics. It was an insult to Yemen.

By invoking Yemen as a destination for those who want to “escape,” Prabowo was not engaging in neutral geography. He was making a comparison—implicitly placing Yemen on the losing end of it. The message, stripped of political context, is unmistakable: if Indonesia is “bright,” then Yemen is something else—something lesser, something undesirable.

That is not rhetoric. That is hierarchy.

And it is a dangerous one for a leader to project.

Yemen is not a symbol to be deployed in domestic political theater. It is a country with deep historical, cultural, and religious significance—particularly for Indonesia itself. For centuries, Yemeni scholars, especially from Hadramaut, have helped shape Indonesian Islam, education, and social life.

Yemen is not a symbol to be deployed in domestic political theater. It is a country with deep historical, cultural, and........

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