The Free Nutritious Meals Sycophants

October 13, 2025 | 01:04 pm

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The free nutritious food program is in disarray. There are indications of corruption.

THE free nutritious meals program reminds us of Joseph Stalin’s collectivization of agriculture in Ukraine during 1932 to 1933, when that nation was still part of the Soviet Union.

In the late 1920s, Stalin launched a centralized agricultural program with a noble aim in mind: increasing agricultural production to improve the people’s welfare. But the result was the exact opposite: land and livestock were seized by the state and agricultural production drastically declined, leading to famine.

Stalin’s aides lied to him, providing false data and information to keep him happy. As a result, in Ukraine, more than three million people died of starvation. Every November, people there commemorate these deaths as the Holodomor.

And like Stalin’s collectivization of agriculture, the free nutritious meal (MBG) program is a project that sounded good, but has had many problems from the outset. President Prabowo Subianto wants to improve the nutrition of children by taking a shortcut while closing eyes to the root of the problem: poverty. The malnutrition experienced by students is caused by the structural poverty of their parents.

But without revealing this problem, Prabowo forced through the free nutritious meals program because he had promised it during his presidential election campaign. As a result, a series of problems has arisen. These culminated with children becoming sick with food poisoning after consuming MBG food.

The National Nutrition Agency—a ministerial-level institution with the responsibility for running the project—has been unable to fully implement its mandate. This year, of the total funding of Rp71 trillion, only Rp13 trillion had been spent as of September. Next year, the budget will be increased to Rp335 trillion, with a target of 82 million beneficiaries. Most of the funding, Rp233 trillion, will be taken from the education fund allocation.

There is another irony: the funds have not entirely gone to those supposed to benefit. Of the nutritious meal allowance of Rp15,000 for a student every day, the National Nutrition Agency allocates Rp2,000 for business rental costs, including equipment; Rp3,000 for operational costs, including employee salaries and Rp10,000 for ingredients for the meals served. On the ground, a number of program partners have been charged other “levies,” further reducing the allocation for food. In a number of locations, the value of one food portion is Rp6,000.

As a result, the nutritious content is minimal. And in some locations, the menu consists of ultra-processed food, energy drinks, and biscuits. Because it is unappetizing, or even stale, students are reluctant to eat the food.

But the government is burying its head in the sand. In the reports, they only count the number of portions served, and assume that the students who have received food have benefited from it. Food that is wasted goes unreported.

Aside from the funding and the menu, it is no longer a rumor that many of the partners providing meals have links with politicians from the ruling party. The free nutritious meal program has turned into a means of sharing out projects with cronies. And for the institutions implementing it, the project also provides an opportunity to request funds from outside, claiming they are to fund the kitchens that they manage.

The lack of nutrition and the corruption in the free nutritious meal program are never discussed openly. It appears that Prabowo does not like hearing bad news. His subordinates all try to please him by providing information that makes the boss happy. And the cases of food poisoning have become a statistic considered as nothing out of the ordinary.

In Stalin’s collective agriculture program, his subordinates were not only afraid of losing their jobs, but also potentially their lives. Therefore, they falsified data, so that Stalin believed the program was a success.

During the New Order regime, the practice of keeping the boss happy became commonplace. In the lead up to his fall, Suharto’s subordinates reported to the President that the situation was under control. On the ground, the value of the rupiah plummeted, and the economy was on the brink of collapse.

Prabowo is not Stalin. But without a desire to open his eyes and ears to the facts, he will repeat what happened in Ukraine more than a century ago: people falling victim, economic ruin, and a bureaucracy filled with sycophants.

Read the Complete Story in Tempo English Magazine

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