Prabowo Reveals Reason for Not Visiting NTT at Start of Earthquake: To Avoid Splitting Focus

President Prabowo Subianto has expressed appreciation for the performance of all his staff in accelerating the handling of the M 7.7 earthquake in Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT). Prabowo revealed the reason he deliberately did not immediately inspect the disaster site in the early days of the incident.

This was conveyed by Prabowo at a coordination meeting on the NTT earthquake disaster handling attended by a number of ministers and agency heads in Nagekeo, NTT, on Wednesday (26/8/2026).

“I convey my thanks on behalf of the central government to all of you who have worked very hard, with quick reactions,” said Prabowo.

Prabowo revealed that he did not immediately check the location after the M 7.7 earthquake so as not to split the focus of his staff’s work in serving the affected residents. According to him, his arrival at the earthquake site could split the concentration of officials who would have to welcome him.

“Indeed, deliberately in the early days I did not want to come, because I wanted to give all agencies the opportunity to serve the people directly. Because sometimes when too many central officials come, concentration is split. So regional officials have to pick them up and so on,” he said.

Prabowo stressed that the most important thing for the central government is to immediately meet the priority needs of affected residents. One of these is by mobilising the main necessities for the victims.

“There is sometimes a tendency for it to end up diverting the initial focus. But we continue to monitor and the most important thing from the centre is mobilising services and aid,” he said.

“That is the most important thing. If we come and then only look at the disaster without being able to overcome it, without being able to send aid, then in the end it is less effective. So after I received reports from all of you, I monitored,” he added.

The officials present included Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Bahlil Lahadalia, State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi, Deputy TNI Commander General Tandyo Budi Revita, National Police Chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo, and BNPB Head Lieutenant General Suharyanto.