Busyro Muqoddas: Free Nutritious Meal Programme Lacks Transparency and Democracy
The head of law, human rights, and wisdom at the central leadership of Muhammadiyah, Busyro Muqoddas, has stated that the free nutritious meal programme (MBG) lacks transparency and operates in an undemocratic manner. He argued that the government increasingly insists on implementing its programme unilaterally, with poor bureaucracy and no public openness or participation.
According to Busyro, such conduct is not new, having begun during President Joko Widodo’s tenure and been significantly intensified by President Prabowo Subianto. “This MBG programme cannot be separated from the political culture we are experiencing, which has become increasingly anti-democratic, anti-criticism, and anti-human rights,” he said during an online press conference by the Coalition to Save Indonesian Education (Kospi) at the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBH) office in Central Jakarta on Monday, 9 March 2026.
Busyro emphasised that not only the MBG programme, but also other programmes such as red-and-white village cooperatives and the establishment of Danantara have been implemented in a closed manner.
The former Anti-Corruption Commission commissioner noted that the MBG project budget is very large. With such a substantial budget, he argued, there is no transparency regarding procurement or the selection of partners.
According to Busyro, the Anti-Corruption Commission should actively oversee the free nutritious meal programme. However, he assessed that the commission is now paralysed after being weakened by Jokowi and House Speaker Puan Maharani. Consequently, the sole recourse is through a constitutional review at the Constitutional Court by civil society. “I hope that this constitutional review will be properly amplified,” he said.
Busyro, alongside MBG Watch and Celios, will file a constitutional challenge against the free nutritious meal programme at the Constitutional Court on 10 March 2026.
Meanwhile, the Coalition to Save Indonesian Education (Kospi) has launched a constitutional complaint channel for teachers to collect complaints from educators affected by the free nutritious meal programme.
Eva Nurcahyani, a researcher at Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), stated that this teacher complaint channel was created after the government reduced the education budget for the MBG programme through the 2026 State Budget Law. “By creating this complaint channel, first we want to monitor how the continuity of a good and proper national education system is maintained, so that it is distributed across all regions and is clear,” Eva said.
Additionally, the complaints ensure teacher welfare and help improve learning quality. Eva explained that the channel can be accessed through the link bit.ly/pengaduankonstitusionalguru. All teachers and education staff at various levels of education affected by government policies can access this channel. Moreover, teachers with experience or information about the impact of education budget policies can also fill in complaints through this channel.
“This data will be used for documenting the actual conditions experienced by teachers in the field, as material for education policy advocacy, and to strengthen social evidence in the subsequent Constitutional Court review process,” Eva said.
All information, Eva stated, will be used responsibly to ensure that education policy remains supportive of educational quality and educator welfare.
The coalition also guarantees that teacher complainant data will only be used for advocacy purposes and ensures the confidentiality of teacher information. This is done as part of protecting and minimising risk for complainants.
As one measure of transparency, BGN (the nutritious meal body) requires MBG kitchens to upload the menus they serve to social media. Not only menus, but also nutritional content and prices.
“If required to upload to social media, at least there is a shame effect. On each package there must also be nutritional information and price, this is a form of transparency and public accountability,” said BGN Deputy Chief Sony Sanjaya, as reported by Antara on Friday, 6 March 2026.