Dudung Reveals He Contacted Dadan Regarding Free Nutritious Meals and Kitchens in Pesantren

Presidential Chief of Staff (KSP) Dudung Abdurachman has denied reports suggesting he owns a Nutrition Service Fulfilment Unit (SPPG) or a kitchen for the Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) programme through former Head of the National Nutrition Agency (BGN), Dadan Hindayana. Dudung stated the information emerged after he helped connect pesantren administrators with Dadan several months ago. According to him, the meeting was arranged because the pesantren was interested in becoming a beneficiary and a location for the MBG programme. “There is news that Mr Dudung supposedly has a kitchen point through Mr Dadan. I want to clarify, several months ago, maybe six months ago, I was close with a pesantren,” Dudung said during a press conference at the KSP in Central Jakarta on Wednesday (10/6). He explained that a number of pesantren administrators asked for his help to be introduced to Dadan. At that time, Dudung said, the pesantren in question already had the administrative readiness to participate in the MBG programme. According to Dudung, the pesantren has a large number of students, making it a potential host for the MBG kitchen programme. “The pesantren administrators told me that there is indeed a programme targeting the pesantren as a beneficiary because the pesantren has 4,000 or 5,000 students, so it could be designated as a kitchen point,” he said. Dudung said he then conveyed this information to Dadan. However, after the introduction process, he claimed he was no longer involved in further discussions. He even asked the pesantren to coordinate directly with his staff to follow up on communication with the BGN. “I said, ‘Mr Dadan, here is a pesantren that is ready, administratively ready’. Well, the realisation did not happen. Finally, I told Dadan, ‘Oh, please contact my staff, Mr Arif Nurrachman later.’” Several weeks ago, Dudung admitted he had asked Dadan about the progress of the proposal. From the information he received, the submission process was still not complete and construction of the kitchen had not yet begun. “Apparently, until now the process hasn’t been completed. The kitchen hasn’t even been built yet,” he said. Because he was the one who introduced the pesantren administrators to Dadan, Dudung suspected this gave rise to the perception that the MBG kitchen belonged to him. He therefore stressed that he does not own an MBG kitchen as has been widely discussed. “It’s just because I asked for help from Mr Dadan, it eventually sounded as if Mr Dudung owns a kitchen. If Mr Dudung owns a kitchen, please check, I will give you a gift. So there is absolutely no kitchen that I own,” Dudung stated.