Cak Imin Wonders: We Don't War, Why Most Debts Buy Instruments Of War?

Vice President Muhaimin Iskandar/ANTARA/ Donny

JAKARTA - Candidate for vice president number 1, Muhaimin Iskandar, admitted that he was surprised by the government's attitude in debting hundreds of trillions of rupiah only to buy war tools.

In fact, according to Cak Imin, currently Indonesia is not facing war conditions. This was revealed by Cak Imin while campaigning in Bandung Regency.

"We are not at war, why are we mostly in debt and buying war tools? It is better to debt to buy agricultural equipment," said Cak Imin, Wednesday, January 3.

The general chairman of the PKB is of the view that, in Indonesia, the need for procurement of defense equipment is no more important than food matters.

He gave an example, since the first time farmers in Indonesia had difficulty getting fertilizer at affordable prices. Not to mention the existence of the food mafia still dominates the trade administration sector.

These problems result in the government still relying on large amounts of food imports and overcoming the welfare of farmers.

"The problem is omission. There is no solution to the distribution, even though this country is strong, this country has the country's ability to have money. It has money," said Cak Imin.

The government, continued Cak Imin, should allocate a larger budget for food needs than war equipment.

"What does that mean? We reject war, which is important for the people to eat. Why do we owe it hundreds of trillions but not for something that is not actually needed? In fact, we need food," he said.

Previously, Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani had revealed that defense equipment spending from foreign loans at the Ministry of Defense increased significantly. The amount reached 25 billion US dollars equivalent to Rp385 trillion with an exchange rate of Rp15,400 per US dollar.

There was a significant increase from US$20.75 billion to US$25 billion. That was agreed upon yesterday," Sri Mulyani said on Wednesday, November 29.

The ministry led by Prabowo also has a very large budget. In 2023, the Ministry of Defense received a defense and security budget of IDR 316 trillion.