UII Rector Rejects Free Nutritious Meals Entering Campus
The Rector of Universitas Islam Indonesia (UII) in Yogyakarta, Fathul Wahid, has rejected the idea of the campus building and managing free nutritious meal kitchens (MBG) to ensure universities maintain critical reasoning towards various state policies.
Fathul stated that the campus has a mandate to improve the quality of education, research, community service, and to uphold critical reasoning. The campus should not be burdened with operational roles that distance it from these strategic missions.
Universities must not become scapegoats for government programmes that leave many problems in governance, targeting accuracy, and the burden on the state budget. The MBG has the potential to threaten democracy on campus. “It blurs the function of the campus and reduces critical attitudes towards state policies,” said Fathul when contacted on Wednesday, 6 May 2026.
He emphasised that he does not agree with the government involving campuses as managers of SPPG in the MBG project. According to him, the programme has drawn public criticism, particularly regarding the large budget that could pressure fiscal space and shift allocations from strategic sectors like education.
The MBG project takes nearly 30 percent of the total education budget. Moreover, there is no guarantee that the largest portion of the budget targets children according to their needs.
Universities, he said, are not operators of technical government programmes to manage MBG kitchens. The opening of MBG kitchens would instead demean the position of the campus to merely an event organiser.
For Fathul, there are more pressing matters than campuses managing MBG kitchens. Campuses have major tasks to improve research quality, strengthen the academic ecosystem, and catch up on global lags.
Fathul is one of the few rectors who vocally criticises the problematic MBG project in various discussion forums and demonstrations. He once joined the demonstration of Ibu-ibu Berisik, part of the Koalisi Suara Ibu, which urged the government to stop the MBG project at the Bundaran Universitas Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta on 22 December 2025.
The coalition protested MBG over mass poisonings that occurred in various regions. Fathul read his poem themed on socio-political criticism.
In addition to rejecting MBG entering the campus, Fathul has joined demonstrations rejecting the revision of the TNI Law with students, lecturers, and activists from various campuses at Balairung UGM on 18 March 2025. The TNI Law revision grants excessive authority or strengthens military supremacy.
Previously, the government asked universities to build and manage MBG kitchens through the Minister of Higher Education, Science, and Technology, Brian Yuliarto, along with the Head of the National Nutrition Agency (BGN), Dadan Hindaya, when inaugurating the MBG kitchen of Universitas Hasanuddin in South Sulawesi on Tuesday, 28 April 2026.
Brian encouraged universities not to stop at research. According to him, campuses need to be directly involved in implementing government policies, including efforts to fulfil children’s nutrition through the MBG programme. He hopes that Unhas’s step will be followed by other campuses.
Fathul stated that he has not received a ministerial instruction letter for his campus to establish an MBG kitchen. Rectors in particular have not discussed MBG kitchens. “I haven’t heard,” said Fathul.