Tommy Kurniawan: MBG is not perfect, but do not immediately convict it of failure

JAKARTA - The Free Nutritious Meal (MBG) program continues to be in the public spotlight. Amid the various criticisms that have emerged, the Chairman of the National Coordination Council of the National Guard Tommy Kurniawan assessed that the program still needs time to improve and should not be immediately considered a failure.

According to Tommy, President Prabowo Subianto's priority programs, ranging from Free Nutritious Meals, free health checks to People's Schools, are part of a development strategy aimed at improving the quality of human resources while strengthening community welfare.

"Government priority programs need to be viewed objectively and balanced. Especially for MBG, the benefits have been felt by the community and the purpose of this program is very good," said Tommy in a written statement received in Jakarta, Friday, June 19.

The politician, who is familiarly called Tomkur, said the National Guard was interested in escorting the success of MBG because the impact was felt directly by low-income families.

He gave an example of many families of farmers, itinerant traders, construction workers, and informal sector workers who were helped because the nutritional needs of their children began to be met.

However, Tommy admitted that the implementation of the program still faced a number of obstacles. According to Tomkur, this is normal considering that MBG is still in the early stages of implementation.

He assessed that the experience of a number of countries showed that national-scale nutrition fulfillment programs almost always face challenges in the early stages.

Tommy gave an example of Japan, which had faced food emergencies and mass poisoning cases before its school meal system developed into one of the best in the world.

Finland also had to face rejection due to budgetary issues. Meanwhile, India was shaken by a case of food poisoning and misuse of funds in the Mid-Day Meal Scheme program which reached more than 118 million children.

England also experienced school food quality issues in the early 2000s before making major reforms and implementing stricter nutritional standards.

"From various countries it can be seen that almost all similar programs face problems in the early stages. The difference is how the improvement is made consistently," he said.

Tommy emphasized that criticism of the government is part of democracy and must be respected. However, he hopes that criticism does not stop at criticism or attempts to create noise.

"Criticism is important. In fact, good criticism becomes input to improve governance. But it would be better if it was accompanied by solutions so that the program can run more accurately," he said.

According to Tomkur, the success of development programs requires joint support and supervision so that the goal of improving the quality of Indonesian human resources can be achieved.