Cak Imin: Middle Class Must Be Patient, Focus on Extreme Poverty

Coordinating Minister for Community Empowerment, Muhaimin Iskandar, has asked the middle class to be patient as the government is currently focusing on eradicating poverty and extreme poverty first. This was stated by Muhaimin when asked about the condition and special programmes for the middle class and those vulnerable to poverty amid the government’s target of achieving 0 per cent extreme poverty by 2026.

“Basically, we are addressing extreme poverty and poverty first. Once this task is completed, we will move on to dealing with those vulnerable to poverty. Be patient,” said Muhaimin, who is often called Cak Imin, after leading a ministerial-level meeting on evaluating poverty alleviation performance, at the Plaza of the Social Security Organising Agency for Employment, Jakarta, on Monday, 27 April 2026.

The Chairman of the National Awakening Party (PKB) said that the issue of the middle class is another topic that will be handled by Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Airlangga Hartanto. According to him, the government of President Prabowo Subianto has only been running for half a year, so it needs time to address problems one by one.

“Be patient. The government has only been in place for a year and a half, right? There will come a time when we move to address vulnerability to poverty. Be patient, we will continue to work hard, but most importantly, we finish tackling extreme poverty first,” he said.

The discussion on extreme poverty alleviation at the ministerial meeting was attended by several members of the Red and White Cabinet. Among others, Minister of Social Affairs Saifullah Yusuf; Minister of Religious Affairs Nasaruddin Umar; Minister of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises Maman Abdurahman; Minister of Economy and Creative Industries Teuku Riefky Harsya; Minister of State Apparatus Utilisation and Bureaucratic Reform Rini Widyantini; and Head of the National Nutrition Agency Dadan Hindayana.

Muhaimin claimed that the government has currently reduced the extreme poverty rate from previously 3.56 million people to 2.2 million people. He said the reduction was caused by several interventions carried out by the government through various social assistance programmes.

He said that several social assistance programmes have targeted 8.56 million poor families or 93.6 per cent of the total targets. In addition, one of the other intervention programmes is free nutritious meals (MBG).

Muhaimin said that the government has allocated a total State Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBN) of Rp503.2 trillion to implement poverty alleviation programmes, including support from regional government budgets of Rp129 trillion.