Poki: Mum, tomorrow we've be told to bring handicraft tools [to school], [but] we haven't bought any yet.
Mother: Why didn't you tell me yesterday? Not late at night like this!! It's very sudden.
Poki: If I'd told you this afternoon you'd have been angry.
Mother: Now I'm even angrier.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has reacted angrily over the June 3 arrest of Dadan Hindayana, the former head of the National Nutrition Agency (BGN), which oversees Prabowo's flagship Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) program, which has been dogged by criticisms over its high cost, food poisoning cases and procurement irregularities.
Hindayana had been removed from his position as head of the BGN the day before along with his two deputies, retired police major general Sonny Sonjaya and retired army major general Lodewijk Pusung. The three are alleged to have approved unqualified Nutrition Fulfillment Service Units (SPPG), inflated prices when procuring goods and services for the BGN and for embezzling operational funds
While Prabowo's anger and disappointment are understandable – after all it was only last February that he bestowed the Order of Distinguished Stars on Hindayana as recognition for exemplary service to the nation and state – commentators point out that rather than lashing out at critics, he should have listened to what observers and experts have been saying for months.
Instead, Prabowo accused those who were critical of the program of being unpatriotic, claiming they gained financial benefits by criticising the government, and that they don't like his government's successes because they have ulterior motives.
"In my opinion, their attitude is narrow, unpatriotic", Prabowo was quoted as saying by Tempo during a cabinet meeting at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on March 13. In separate remarks he dismissed criticisms as being "like dogs barking at a caravan, which continues to pass".
Prabowo also claimed that he receives regular intelligence reports about such observers and said he knows the parties that are financing them, adding he would soon take action against them. "In time we will sort all of them out. But for now we're still trying to use persuasive methods", he said.
However the removal of Hindayana and his replacement with Nanik Sudaryati Deyang are unlikely to address the root cause of the problems besetting the program.
MBG Watch for example said that the program should be shut down temporarily and the opportunity used to address the problems, including improving governance, targeting beneficiaries and strengthening transparency.
The independent research foundation Celios said that corruption in the MBG program has occurred because the project is controlled by rent-seekers, and many of the kitchens are run by or are affiliated with government officials and political parties.
"The program needs to be completely redesigned to be much more efficient. This should be done calmly, with good technocratic principles, not hastily", Celios Public Policy Director Wahyudi Askar told Tempo on June 10.
And in a scathing editorial on June 8, Tempo said that Hindayana's arrest is just the tip of a chaotic iceberg, describing the program as a debacle from top to bottom that was flawed from the start, and that the populist project lacked prior studies and planning and adequate evaluation and oversight.
The paper noted that the BGN's operations have long raised suspicions over irregular procurements and illicit mark ups, and that there are blatant conflicts of interest within BGN with many partners being supporters of Prabowo in the 2024 elections – including Deyang – who is also the chair of a Prabowo foundation.
"It is hard not to conclude that the free nutritious meal program, which swallowed a staggering 268 trillion rupiah budget this year, was deliberately designed to consolidate support networks, distribute rents to cronies, and polish the image of the Prabowo administration", the editorial concluded.
