Prabowo: Anyone May Enter the MBG Kitchens to Lodge Complaints
President Prabowo Subianto has emphasised that anyone may inspect the kitchens of the Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) programme. The public, he stated, is free to lodge complaints with the Nutrition Fulfilment Service Units (SPPG) that provide meals for his flagship initiative.
According to Prabowo, the locations of every MBG kitchen must be known to the public, particularly residents nearby, so they can check the suitability of those facilities. “The coordinates of the kitchens are known to the surrounding community,” Prabowo said in a statement released by the Presidential Secretariat on Thursday evening, 19 March 2026.
Prabowo conveyed this stance during a question-and-answer session in Hambalang, Bogor, West Java, which took place from Wednesday evening until the early hours of Thursday. In that interview, Prabowo responded to questions from several journalists and experts he had invited to his residence.
The Gerindra Party Chairman stated that the public may voice their grievances about the free nutritious meals directly to the SPPG. “Anyone may check (the SPPG). School principals, parents, and local residents may enter and complain,” he said.
Prabowo encouraged the public to actively report any shortcomings in the SPPG. “Reports that are only positive are not a good culture. We must dare to face reality,” said the former Defence Minister.
The government, according to Prabowo, also provides various public oversight mechanisms. In addition to monitoring MBG kitchens directly on site, the public may use the National Nutrition Agency’s alert channel at number 127. According to Prabowo, transparency and public involvement are key to ensuring the MBG programme runs well.
In its implementation, the MBG programme has frequently received various complaints, ranging from food poisoning cases and unhygienic kitchens to accusations of a lack of transparency from critics.
For instance, Busyro Muqoddas, Chairman of Law, Human Rights, and Wisdom at the Muhammadiyah Central Leadership, stated that the MBG programme is not transparent and undemocratic. He said the government is increasingly determined to impose its programme unilaterally with poor and non-transparent bureaucracy, or without public participation.
According to Busyro, such actions are not the first, but have been occurring since the era of former President Joko Widodo and have been intensified under President Prabowo Subianto.
“This MBG programme is inseparable from the political culture we feel, which is increasingly anti-democratic, anti-criticism, and also anti-human rights,” he said, participating virtually in a press conference of the Coalition to Save Indonesian Education (Kospi) at the office of the Legal Aid Foundation (YLBH) in Central Jakarta on Monday, 9 March 2026.
As one transparency effort, the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) requires MBG kitchens to upload their served menus to social media. Not only the menus, but also the nutritional content and prices.
“If uploading to social media is mandatory, at least there will be a shaming effect. On every package, nutritional information and prices must also be included; this is a form of transparency and public accountability,” said Deputy Head of BGN Sony Sanjaya, quoted from Antara on Friday, 6 March 2026.