Indonesia to push ahead with free meals scheme despite ‘extraordinary’ campaign against it, Prabowo says

[JAKARTA] Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto said on Friday (Feb 13) that he will proceed with his free meals programme despite the “extraordinary” campaign mounted against it, adding that it is being funded through budgetary efficiency measures.

“We will implement this programme,” Prabowo said, during the launch of a free meal kitchen operated by the national police in Jakarta.

“We will face the extraordinary campaign, which said that I am wasting money,” he added.

South-east Asia’s biggest economy has been in turmoil following a warning about stock market transparency by index provider MSCI, which caused a frantic sell-off that slashed the market’s value by US$120 billion.

Days later, Moody’s cut its bond-rating outlook for Indonesia’s government and some of its companies to negative.

Investors have also expressed concern about Prabowo’s big spending plans, including the US$20 billion free meals scheme, but he said savings from elsewhere will ensure that Indonesia remains within its fiscal deficit limit of 3 per cent of gross domestic product.

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“This is what we are saving money on, this is what we are diverting... Our state budget does not exceed the parameters we set,” he said.

Since the programme’s launch in January 2025, at least 15,000 children across the country have fallen ill as a result of food poisoning.

During the event, Prabowo said the percentage of children affected was low and stressed that the overall scheme had “succeeded”, with 60 million free meal recipients as at Friday. REUTERS