Civil Society Urges Prabowo to Evaluate KDKMP, Considered to Deviate from the Spirit of Cooperatives

Forum Group Discussion (FGD) entitled Monitoring KDKMP and Jumbo Budget of the Ministry of Defense in South Jakarta, Wednesday, July 15, 2026 (VOI)

JAKARTA - A number of civil society elements who are members of the Merah Putih Institute (MPI) urged President Prabowo Subianto to conduct a thorough evaluation of the Red and White Village/Neighborhood Cooperative (KDKMP) program. They assessed that the program had deviated from the basic spirit of cooperatives which placed the community as the main actors of economic democracy.

The demand was conveyed in a Group Discussion Forum (FGD) entitled Monitoring the KDKMP and the Defense Ministry's Jumbo Budget: Testing its Compatibility with the Spirit of the Supreme Court Decision Number 28/PUU-XI/2013 regarding Cooperatives which was held in South Jakarta, Wednesday, July 15.

The Director of MPI and Civil Democracy and Supremacy Activist, Fauzan Ohorella, assessed that since its inception, the pattern of managing KDKMP has not reflected the principles of cooperatives that are independent, democratic, and based on member participation.

"From the beginning, the approach was strange. The cooperative was built using the state budget, then channeled through the Ministry of Defense post, then to PT Agrinas Nusantara Pangan. After that, the village fund was taken for the physical development and facilities of the KDKMP. This is clearly an expropriation of village rights and a setback for economic democracy and the independence of the people as members or shareholders of cooperatives," said Fauzan.

According to him, the use of state funds combined with the use of village funds makes the community no longer the main owner of the cooperative, but only carries out policies that have been set by the central government.

On this basis, MPI asked President Prabowo to thoroughly evaluate the implementation of the KDKMP program so that it is in line with the principles of cooperatives as mandated by the constitution.

"We urge President Prabowo to conduct a total evaluation of this KDKMP program. We suspect that this program is not a cooperative that exists in the public's imagination, but is suspected to be a Special Village Cooperative for the Minister of Defense (KDKMP), whose management is centralized and militaristic," he said.

In addition to highlighting the governance of the program, Fauzan also questioned the government's lack of explanation regarding the death of five KDKMP manager candidates. According to him, the incident needs to be investigated openly so as not to create speculation in the community.

Meanwhile, the State Law academician, Dr. Rorano, reminded that cooperatives are a mandate of Article 33 of the 1945 Constitution which is built on the principles of independence, economic democracy, and community voluntariness.

He emphasized that this spirit had been strengthened through the Constitutional Court Decision Number 28/PUU-XI/2013 which revoked Law Number 17 of 2012 concerning Cooperatives in order to maintain the identity of cooperatives.

"Therefore, the Supreme Court Decision Number 28 of 2013 which revoked Law Number 17 of 2012 and restored the previous cooperative arrangement was carried out in order to maintain the independence, economic democracy, and voluntariness of the people in building cooperatives," said Rorano.

Rorano also questioned the extent of the involvement of defense elements in the management of KDKMP. According to him, this dominance has the potential to obscure the essence of cooperatives as a community economic movement.

"The Constitution clearly stipulates that the role of the military is to maintain the sovereignty and resilience of the country from foreign threats. The question is, what is the correlation with cooperatives?" he said.