JAKARTA UIN political observer Walisongo Semarang, Kholidul Adib, believes that the plan to form the Red and White Village Cooperative (KDMP) in all villages in the country has the potential to be misused into an electoral tool for political parties.
The reason is, the government does not prohibit political party cadres from being the management of the cooperative.
It could be that KDMP is like the Village Unit Cooperative which became a political tool in the New Order era. It's also strange, cooperatives but how come it's a top-down? It's not bottom-up or from lower aspirations. We need to keep KDMP clean from political elements. I agree that political party administrators are prohibited from being administrators or managers of KDMP to make it more sterile," he said, Sunday, May 25.
Previously, Minister of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Budi Arie Setiadi said KDMP membership was open. Political party cadres may also become members of cooperatives as long as they are proven to be domiciled in the village where the cooperative is located.
The plan is for KDMP to be launched nationally on October 28, 2025. The government has prepared a budget of around Rp. 400 trillion for the formation of KDMP. The budget is used for initial capital of 80,000 cooperatives.
In addition to the Kemenkop-UKM, the KDMP program is also under the supervision of the Ministry of Food Affairs, led by Zulkifli Hasan and the Ministry of Villages led by Yandri Susanto, both of whom are PAN politicians.
Kholid is worried that KDMP is being designed into a political machine by political parties who are members of the Advanced Indonesia Coalition (KIM).
Moreover, President Prabowo Subianto is also interested in building political networks to grassroots to prepare for the 2029 presidential election.
"We know the presidential threshold is zero percent. Everything can progress. Long-term coalitions are increasingly difficult to maintain. So, mastery of grassroots is very important. Potential KDMP is misused as an effective sound-reducing machine," he said.
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He emphasized that because they are vulnerable to corruption and politicization, the KDMP program must be closely monitored by invoking the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
"There must be strict regulations. The government needs to regulate limits on the involvement of active politicians in strategic programs so as not to overlap with electoral interests," he said.
In addition, villagers where cooperatives are located must also be educated to be politically literate so that they can distinguish between political parties and the government.
"Given an understanding of their rights as citizens and how to distinguish public programs from political campaigns," said Kholid.
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