Arya News - A coalition of NGOs, including the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) and Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), urged the government to halt the program’s expansion and immediately undertake comprehensive reforms.
JAKARTA – Civil society groups have given the government seven calendar days to overhaul President Prabowo Subianto’s free nutritious meal program, which has been linked to tens of thousands of food poisoning cases nationwide, warning they will pursue legal action if their demands are not met.
Representatives of activist groups under the Save Indonesian Education Coalition went to the headquarters of the National Nutrition Agency (BGN), which oversees the program, in Central Jakarta on Thursday to submit a legal notice against BGN chief Sudaryono over what they described as persistent failures in the implementation of the program.
The same legal notice was also submitted to President Prabowo, Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa and House of Representatives Speaker Puan Maharani.
The coalition, which includes the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) and Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), urged the government to halt the program’s expansion and immediately undertake comprehensive reforms.
“We demand a comprehensive moratorium and evaluation of the program, including for the government to guarantee a full recovery of the victims of foodborne illness [linked to free meals],” LBH Jakarta advocacy head Alif Fauzi Nurwidiastomo told reporters.
Alif said the coalition would pursue any available legal measures, including a citizen lawsuit, if the government failed to comply with its demands within seven calendar days.
The coalition’s ultimatum comes as the multibillion-dollar program, one of Prabowo’s key campaign promises in the 2024 presidential election, continues to face scrutiny over its implementation.
Launched early last year to improve nutrition for tens of millions of children, the program has been repeatedly hit by mass food poisoning cases, allegations of corruption and leadership turmoil at the BGN.
As of late August, the program had been linked to 43,838 cases of food poisoning nationwide, according to the coalition.
Budget concerns
The coalition also raised concerns over the misuse of education funds to finance the free meals program in its legal notice.
It said the government had yet to comply with the Constitutional Court’s July ruling separating the free meals program from the state budget’s allocation for education.
“This legal notice also aims as a reminder for the government, which has yet to respect and comply with the ruling,” Alif said, noting that the planned 2027 state budget had yet to be synchronized with the ruling.
The Constitution mandates that 20 percent of the state budget be allocated to education, including to improve teachers’ salaries and education quality, which remains uneven across the archipelago. In the 2026 budget, that allocation amounted to Rp 769 trillion (US$46.5 billion), of which nearly one-third, or Rp 223 trillion, was earmarked for the free meals program; a health-focused initiative that critics say should not be drawn from the education budget.
This year’s allocation represents a sharp increase from the roughly Rp 53 trillion absorbed by the program last year, as the government aims to reach 72.46 million beneficiaries by 2027. At the same time, the number of kitchens designated to prepare the meals, known as Nutrition Fulfillment Service Units (SPPG), has ballooned to more than 20,000, some of which operate without the required health and sanitation certificates.
Instead of expanding the program, the coalition called on the government to redirect the earmarked funds toward meaningful improvements in education, including raising the salaries of hundreds of thousands of teachers and low-pay contract teachers.
On the same day, another coalition of health and public policy groups, MBG Watch, separately called for the program to be terminated altogether, describing the program as “ambitious and reckless”.
The coalition noted that no parties had been held accountable for the health impacts caused by the massive food poisoning.
“Imagine all of the [funds] allocated without any accountability whatsoever,” said Galau D. Muhammad of MBG Watch.
The Save Indonesian Education Coalition and MBG Watch also urged thousands of food poisoning victims to file lawsuits seeking accountability from the government.
During his latest visit to Russia in early September, President Prabowo defended the initiative as part of “development for the benefit of ordinary citizens”
“Development must not only benefit a handful of people. It must be measured on the dining table of ordinary families,” he said.
Neither BGN chief Sudaryono nor Government Communications Agency (Bakom) head Muhammad Qodari responded to The Jakarta Post’s requests for comments.