Prabowo: What Is the Point of Independence If We Cannot Feed Our People?

President Prabowo Subianto has reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to providing free nutritious meals to students, pregnant women, and the elderly, stating that a nation’s independence is meaningless if it cannot feed its people. Speaking during a plenary cabinet session at the State Palace in Jakarta on Monday, Prabowo argued that the most basic measure of a country’s success is its ability to provide food for its citizens. “Every nation, every economy, is measured by this. We must ask ourselves, can we feed our people? What is the point of independence if we cannot provide the most basic necessity?” he said.

Prabowo expressed bewilderment at intellectuals and critics who suggest the Free Nutritious Meal (MBG) programme should be diverted to other priorities. He firmly stated that there is nothing more fundamental than addressing hunger. “If there are smart people saying we should focus on other things instead of feeding hungry stomachs, I invite them to reconsider. From thousands of years of human civilisation, no society has survived without food. Civilisations perish without it,” he asserted.

The President also addressed the criticism that the programme constitutes a waste of state funds, contrasting it with the massive, uncommented losses of national wealth over the past three decades. He highlighted that a primary goal of the initiative is to combat stunting, noting that at least a quarter of Indonesian children suffer from the condition. “I am attacked for wanting to feed our children, pregnant mothers, and the elderly, and it is called wasteful. Yet, thousands of trillions of rupiah have evaporated from this country every year for 34 years, and no expert protested, no investigation was launched,” Prabowo remarked.