Zulhas Dismisses Claims of Village Cooperatives Being Built at Sea

Coordinating Minister for Food Zulkifli Hasan has responded with a mix of bemusement and seriousness to online claims that 12 locations for the flagship Kopdes Merah Putih (Red and White Village Cooperative) programme are situated in the middle of the sea. The controversy erupted after netizens used the Simkopdes application mapping feature to highlight alleged coordinates in the waters off Tapin Regency, South Kalimantan. “How can you build in the middle of the sea? How would you pour the cement?” Zulhas quipped during a seminar in Makassar, drawing laughter from the audience while signalling the government’s firm response to negative narratives surrounding the economic initiative. Beyond the sea claims, social media has been flooded with content suggesting the cooperatives are being built in cemeteries and rice paddies. Zulhas suspects these narratives are engineered by parties opposed to the programme’s success, exploiting the genuine challenge of land availability in many villages. He clarified that the Kopdes Merah Putih is not a retail store but an integrated economic service centre designed to distribute government aid, including seeds, subsidised credit, social assistance, and agricultural machinery. The minister also outlined plans for the cooperatives to protect farmers and fishermen from exploitative middlemen by providing cold storage and ice factories, allowing them to store produce and negotiate better prices.