Amidst the Uproar Surrounding the Education Budget and Nutrition Programme, This is the Response from a Gerindra Party Member of the DPR

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA – A member of the DPR RI from the Gerindra faction has responded to the uproar surrounding the education budget and the nutrition programme.

“There is an old habit in our politics: figures are rarely treated as tools for thinking, but more often used as tools for intimidation,” he said to the media in Jakarta, Thursday (26/2/2026).

According to him, large figures are presented like a hammer – slammed on the public table – so that suspicion sounds louder than explanation. It is in this habit that the debate about the APBN moves, not as a policy discussion, but as an emotional interpretation.

He said that the uproar surrounding the education budget and the nutrition programme is the most recent example.

Figures in the hundreds of trillions are dragged into the public sphere as if there is a seizure of rights, an erosion of basic needs, even a betrayal of the future of education.

“In fact, the problem is not that simple. In fact, if read honestly, the problem is not in the area described by the uproar,” he said.

He affirmed that the state budget is not a political pamphlet, but rather works with structures, classifications, and logic that are often not conducive to emotions.

Azis believes that within the framework of the education budget, the state not only finances classrooms, books, or teacher salaries, but also all the prerequisites so that children can learn as whole human beings.

“It is at this point that the nutrition programme is placed not as a replacement, let alone a cut, but as a support,” he said.