*LUCKY HAKIM AND THE BEST REGENT AWARD, POST-LIES THEORY ANALYSIS AND 2025 BPS DATA*
By: H. Adlan Daie
Political analyst, General Secretary of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) of Indramayu Regency.
The “Best Regent” award, even the best in Indonesia, was bestowed upon Lucky Hakim by “detikfood,” a national online media outlet (April 28, 2026 edition), without any sociological impact index on the region he leads.
Even the Indonesian Ministry of Home Affairs, which imposed moral sanctions a year ago, did not hold back in awarding Lucky Hakim among the top five “Best Regents” in Indonesia, as expressed on various social media platforms.
This article provides a perspective to briefly examine the moral validity of the award within the analytical framework of two approaches:
First, in the “post-truth” theory, specifically Steven Tech’s post-lie theory, political regimes in the social media era often prioritize image politics as an instrument for shaping public perception, certainly a positive perception of the ruling regime.
In the “post-truth” theory, technocratically measurable performance output is irrelevant unless image politics consistently fulfills George Orwell’s famous maxim about the dangers of image politics:
“Political language is designed to produce lies as if they were honest, crimes disguised as attention, and falsehoods advertised, forced to be loved by the people,” wrote George Orwell.
In other words, this is a model of “post-truth” political marketing, where the “outer skin,” the “glowing” political face, and the plastic “skincare” of politics are more important than technocratic performance achievements, to the extent that “false imagery can be forced” to be loved by the people.
Second, the award for Best Regent can be technocratically “confronted” with the Regent’s performance achievements based on BPS data. This is a credible and accountable way to assess the award’s eligibility index.
BPS data for 2025, released in early 2026, means Lucky Hakim has led Indramayu for one year. The BPS data portrays Indramayu as “bottom” out of 27 regencies/cities in West Java across three variables.
The “competitiveness index” is very weak, with a score of 3.8. Meanwhile, the “average years of schooling” for its population is only 7.06, and the number of poor people is 11.92%. These are the two variables that are “bottom”—the most “asfala safilin”—out of 27 regencies/cities in West Java.
The 2025 BPS data on the three variables portraying Indramayu above are, on average, below the national achievement index and below the West Java regional average for the same year (2025).
This is the credible data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) on the portrait of Indramayu in 2025, the Regent’s performance output in one year, which cannot be obscured by image-shaming, short video clippings, and manipulative political narratives on various media platforms.
The latest Pew Research survey, adapted by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LSI), found a new trend: the public’s resistance and rejection of overloaded and excessive image politics, no matter how manipulative it is, can actually lead to the downfall of figures who are portrayed as achievers when the image of success advertised and forced into the public sphere is irrationally tested in the reality of the “spiritual atmosphere,” when the image of success fails to be validated by the public’s moral threshold.
Political scientist Noams Chomsky, in his theory of political communication, draws a distinction between “political image” and “political image.”
Image is built on the falsehood of a mirage in instant political marketing, while “political image” grows from a process of political activism and intense intellectual dialectics, forming a strong personal character and authority.
The message of this short article is that political regimes are time-limited, but maintaining state morality is an eternal responsibility to be passed on to future generations.
The value of a regent elected by the people lies not merely in administrative and technocratic work, but in the exemplary work of leadership as a source of moral values and public decency.
Therefore, quoting the message of the Quran, Surah Al-Imran, verse 104 (for those who still believe in Quranic doctrine), “there must be among us a group of reminders” maintaining public “sanity” to guide the “ummah” (nation) to rise in status and quality of civilization.
Meanwhile, the excessive and excessive praise engineered by political power to cover up falsehoods is merely a primitive method, accelerating the final path to a political “grave” of shame and misery.
History has proven this time and again.
Regards
Indramayu, May 1, 2026
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