Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto (right) reads out vows during the inauguration ceremony at the presidential palace in Jakarta on Oct 21. - PHOTO: REUTERS
JAKARTA (The straits Times/ANN): Just hours after being inaugurated as Indonesia’s eighth President, Prabowo Subianto unveiled his Cabinet, a hefty 48-member group of men and women who will help him make decisions to lead the country.
Prabowo, 73, who took office on Oct 20 after two failed attempts in 2014 and 2019, is raring to go, and the Cabinet, the largest in Indonesia’s recent history, has its work cut out.
Reports have emerged that during the coming weekend, Mr Prabowo will be taking them on a three-day retreat at a military academy nestled in a Javanese mountain range to bond and discuss national issues.
The Straits Times looks at four priorities that have emerged in his to-do list.
1. Free lunch programme
This is considered to be one of his major campaign planks, with Mr Prabowo promising to help the poorest communities address the problem of malnutrition by providing free meals to all children and pregnant women.
The plan, for which the government has set aside 71 trillion rupiah (S$6 billion), has being piloted in schools in cities like Jakarta and Semarang in Central Java, with meals that include rice with side dishes.
It aims to reach 82.9 million students by 2029, with an expected budget of 400 trillion rupiah.
Nearly 21.6 per cent of Indonesian children under five are affected by stunting, characterised by impaired growth and development due to poor nutrition, according to the UN children’s agency Unicef.
In his inaugural speech on Oct 20, Mr Prabowo alluded to his meal plan, and pledged to address the issue.
“Too many of our brothers and sisters are below the poverty line. Too many of our children go to school without breakfast,” he said.
2. Better healthcare
In order to make sure Indonesians lead longer lives and stay healthy, Mr Prabowo wants to provide free medical check-ups.
The plan will target 55 million people starting from 2025, prioritising those over the age of 50. This is in line with moves to combat tuberculosis (TB), a major public health challenge for South-east Asia’s largest country.
According to the World Health Organisation, Indonesia has the second-highest number of TB cases in the world, with around 100,000 people dying from it each year.
About 8 trillion rupiah will be dedicated to completing TB treatment programmes.
About 3.3 trillion rupiah has been allocated for the check-up initiative, which will focus on promoting preventive care and healthy living as well.
Another 1.7 trillion rupiah has been set aside for expanding healthcare facilities, which will include the construction of new hospitals, details of which have not been released.
3. Food security
Reliance on food supplies from other countries is something Mr Prabowo wants to address, in the face of growing protectionism, heightened global tensions and other uncertainties.
During his speech on Oct 20, the President declared that he wants to see Indonesia reach food self-sufficiency in four to five years.
He added that rather than relying on others, the country can be in a position to supply food, saying: “We are even ready to become the world’s food barn.”
In line with this, the government has allotted 15 trillion rupiah to, among other things, finance development of national, regional and village-level food-storage facilities.
The fund will also be used to create thousands of new hectares of rice fields. Rice is a staple for Indonesia as well as its immediate neighbours.
In order to ensure that the roll-out of the plans is smooth, Mr Prabowo has created a coordinating ministry for food affairs, which will be helmed by former trade minister Zulkifli Hasan.
4. Improving education
Prabowo has made school renovation a priority to provide a better learning environment for students.
About 20 trillion rupiah has been set aside for upgrading facilities in tens of thousands of schools nationwide.
The fund will be targeted at schools in rural areas which have less modern infrastructure and lack technological tools, compared with those in the more urban parts of the country.
Local communities also stand to gain from the upgrading, as the government plans to hire local contractors to carry out the works, which will open up job opportunities.
Access to education remains a significant challenge in the country, where not all children on its 17,000 islands can easily go to school.
Unicef says that more than four million children and adolescents aged seven to 18 in Indonesia are not in school. - The Straits Times/ANN
