Ministry of Hajj is Only as Old as Corn, President Appreciates

BOGOR - President Prabowo Subianto appreciates the performance of the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah in the implementation of the 2026 hajj. The appreciation is considered important because the ministry was only formed and faced a very limited preparation time.

Minister of Hajj and Umrah Mochamad Irfan Yusuf or Gus Irfan said that his party had only started working after being inaugurated in September 2025. In fact, the stages of the haj organization from the Saudi Arabian government have started since June 2025.

This means that the new ministry started work with a delay of about three to four months.

"We were inaugurated in September 2025 while the Hajj timeline from Saudi Arabia has started in June 2025. This means that we are about three to four months behind," Gus Irfan told reporters after meeting the President at the Garuda Yaksa Paddepokan, Hambalang, Bogor, Wednesday (17/6).

However, Gus Irfan said that various stages were successfully pursued through cooperation with the DPR, the Hajj Supervisory Team, and all stakeholders.

According to Gus Irfan, the President appreciated the implementation of this year's hajj despite there were still a number of notes that needed to be improved.

The Minister of State Secretary (Mensesneg) Prasetyo Hadi added that the President also expressed his gratitude to all levels of the Ministry of Hajj as well as more than 2,000 Hajj officers who served Indonesian pilgrims.

According to the Minister of Religion, the meeting which was originally scheduled to last one hour ended up lasting more than two hours due to the many evaluations and discussions regarding the improvement of Hajj services in the coming years.