November 28, 2025 | 09:35 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has established a Special Task Force to build 300,000 bridges in remote areas. He aims to have all the bridges built by next year.
"Some are small, some are just crossings. This is what my 'children' are currently designing. Be patient, I am working on it, hopefully by next year all the bridges will be standing," he said while attending a Teacher's Day commemoration event at the Indonesia Arena, Gelora Bung Karno area, Central Jakarta, on Friday, November 28, 2025.
Prabowo made the statement after watching a video presented during the 2025 National Teacher's Day, where children are seen crossing the river due to a lack of road access.
Prabowo instructed the Minister of Higher Education, Science, and Technology, Brian Yuliarto, to mobilize students from the Faculty of Civil Engineering to build bridges in the villages. He also asked the military to deploy battalions to build bridges.
"I also ask the police to get involved, I ask for the Brimob personnel to be deployed to help the people in the villages address this bridge issue, because I cannot bear to see children risking their lives every day to go to school," he said.
The Head of State also mentioned that this problem must be addressed with real work instead of theories and discussions. "It cannot be solved with scolding, swearing, or mocking. We have to address this bridge problem with real work, real thinking," he said.
But Prabowo said building the bridges requires funding, and asked Finance Minister Purbaya to get into this matter.
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