Bobby Disappointed with Post-Disaster Recovery Budget for North Sumatra at Rp 2.1 Trillion, Walks out of Meeting
A viral video captured North Sumatra Governor Bobby Nasution walking out of a virtual meeting with coordinating ministers in protest over post-disaster recovery and reconstruction funding (R3P) allocations. Nasution expressed disappointment that North Sumatra received only Rp 2.1 trillion from the central government’s Rp 56 trillion post-disaster response budget.
In the video recorded on Monday, 2 March 2026, Nasution was shown attending the virtual meeting alongside Dikky Anugerah, Head of Bappelitbang (Regional Development Planning Board) for North Sumatra. His expression visibly showed frustration as he invited Anugerah to leave the meeting room, saying: “Even the coordinating minister is protesting, who arranged this, let’s just leave, this makes no sense.”
When asked about the video, Nasution explained that post-disaster response data was drawn from the R3P plan, which he noted had been developed jointly with central government ministries and agencies, verified by BPS (Central Statistics Agency), and submitted to Bappenas (National Development Planning Agency). He stated that whilst the central government allocated Rp 56 trillion for post-disaster management across Sumatra Utara, Sumatra Barat, and Aceh, North Sumatra received the smallest portion despite having the second-greatest impact.
“The central government allocated more than Rp 56 trillion to assist disaster-affected regions. This was divided among three provinces. What we objected to was that North Sumatra’s share was only Rp 2.1 trillion from the Rp 56 trillion total, whilst our actual needs exceed Rp 30 trillion,” Nasution stated during an inspection of a people’s school construction project in Padangsidimpuan.
Nasution expressed disappointment with the budget allocation formula, questioning how the distribution was determined given that North Sumatra suffered the most severe impact after Aceh. He argued that the allocation methodology should be based on disaster impact and casualty figures rather than other criteria.
“We are somewhat disappointed and object to this figure, given that we are disaster victims—impact should be the benchmark. After Aceh, we have the most victims and significant property losses,” he said. “Yet we receive the smallest budget allocation. We want to know the rationale and basis for this distribution. Based on casualty numbers alone, we should not receive such a small allocation, and based on damage assessment, the figure should also be different.”