National Awakening Day: What Obstacles Still Remain in Indonesia?

National Awakening Day is commemorated every May 20th. A Kompas Research and Development (Litbang Kompas) poll highlights several challenges that Indonesians believe hinder the nation's progress.

"The public acknowledges that various challenges potentially obstruct the awakening they aspire to," wrote a Kompas Litbang researcher in their report on Monday, May 19, 2025.

A majority, or 48.7%, of respondents cited high levels of corruption in the country as the biggest obstacle.

Furthermore, 17.7% of respondents believe the government lacks optimal policies to address the new challenges of contemporary national awakening.

Other challenges facing the nation include weak character education or morals (14.6%); economic inequality and social welfare disparities (12.4%); apathy within society (5.1%); Indonesian politics (0.2%); and oligarchy (0.2%).

Despite these challenges, the survey indicates that almost all respondents (95.7%) still feel proud to be Indonesian citizens.

This survey involved 510 respondents from 54 cities across 38 provinces, selected randomly according to the population proportion in each province.

Data collection was conducted from April 21-24, 2025, through telephone interviews. The survey's margin of error is approximately 4.25% with a 95% confidence level, under conditions of simple random sampling.