Puan Backs Government's Increased Disaster Mitigation Budget: It Must Deliver Benefits

Speaker of the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR RI) Puan Maharani has voiced support for the government’s plan to increase the budget allocation for disaster mitigation, although she insisted the allocation must deliver real benefits.

“As long as the budget allocation is genuinely beneficial, we have no objection. However, the benefits must be better than before,” said Puan at the DPR building in Jakarta on Tuesday (8/9/2026).

Puan noted that Indonesia is indeed prone to natural disasters, and she called on the government to act in a united manner when handling such events.

“So when something like what is happening now occurs, it must be handled in an integrated way. It cannot be done by a single agency or ministry alone; it has to be done together,” she said.

“Therefore, we hope the government and the ministries and agencies can carry out mitigation efforts jointly going forward,” she added.

This includes forest and land fires (karhutla), which she urged be dealt with swiftly, along with the social and health problems arising from them.

“As we see now, there are already cases of acute respiratory infection (ISPA), and children whose education has been disrupted — these must be resolved quickly, and there must be solutions going forward,” she said.

Earlier, President Prabowo Subianto said the government would significantly increase the budget allocation for disaster mitigation. This is deemed important given that Indonesia lies on the Pacific Ring of Fire, making it vulnerable to a wide range of natural disasters.

“Being a country in the ring of fire means we must be ready to face situations like this at any time,” Prabowo said during a limited meeting on natural disaster management with regional heads held virtually on Monday (7/9).

“This is perhaps a lesson for us, for the government I lead: the budget allocation for disaster mitigation must be increased significantly,” he continued.

Prabowo assessed that his administration is more capable of handling disasters compared with previous years. He cited the disaster response in several parts of Sumatra, namely Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra.

“I believe we will be more capable of facing what lies ahead; even now, compared with years past, our response has been very fast. In the disaster situations in Sumatra — Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra — our response has been quite massive and quite swift,” he said.