Prabowo-Gibran Must Detail The Technical Problem Of Free Nutrition Eating Programs

Prabowo Gibran (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - The government is advised to detail the technical implementation of free lunch and milk programs in the era of the elected presidential government Prabowo Subianto. This is to avoid potential bad impacts in the country.

Social observer and public policy observer Muhammad Gumarang said the government is expected to carefully detail the budget for the Prabowo-Gibran government's flagship program so as not to burden the state budget.

"The government must think about its budget well, and also make a priority scale," Gumarang said, quoting Antara.

He also highlighted the challenges of distributing food and milk, because of Indonesia's geographical factors, which are archipelagic countries. Gumarang hopes that the government will think carefully about how to distribute good and effective, especially the distribution of foodstuffs.

In addition to budgeting and distribution, Gumarang also highlighted plans to import milk because domestic production does not meet demand. According to him, the government must be careful and selective in importing.

He also reminded the government to be more selective in importing milk from countries that have a poor track record like China. Monitoring the quality of milk and its halal must be considered.

According to him, China has a history of a milk scandal contaminated with melamin chemicals. As a result, the scandal affected 300,000 victims of various dangerous diseases. Of these, 54 thousand victims were rushed to the hospital and six babies had died from kidney failure.

"We already have a problematic track record (Chinese staff). If you need milk from China or for other needs, Indonesia must be selective towards halal labels and quality," said Gumarang.

Moreover, Chinese food is currently a concern because of its quality which is considered problematic. One of them was found that illegal Chinese snack food branded Hot Spice Latiru and Latiao Strips which resulted in 6 Cidadap I Elementary School students, Sukaraja District experiencing dizziness, nausea and vomiting last May.

According to Gumarang, the incident was due to the lack of firm supervision of Indonesian imported goods.

The 2025 RAPBN allocates a budget for a free nutritious food program, which is one of Prabowo Subianto's priority programs of IDR 71 trillion or 2 percent of the total state expenditure plan of IDR 3,613.1 trillion.