Indonesian President Prabowo defends his free meal scheme after 6,000 suffer food poisoning

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto on Monday defended his free meal programme for children after witnessing 6,000 cases of food poisoning, saying the proportion affected was small as compared and the plan was still shaping up and evolving.

There was a huge public outcry with images of young children being treated on hospital beds being broadcast by TV channels. With huge public outrage there was a demand for the suspension of the programme by the local NGOs.

During his speech at a political party event, Prabowo said, “Yes, there were shortcomings, food poisoning. We counted all the meals served, the deviation, the deficiency, or error represents 0.00017 per cent.”

This initiative aims to offer free meals for pregnant women and gradually stabilizing since its launch in January with around 30 million recipients till today and targets to reach 83 million by the year’s end.  

Prabowo said this initiative has improved opportunities, created jobs for local farmers and fishermen along with prevention of child stunting. About the target of this initiative he said “This doesn’t mean we’re satisfied. But a human endeavour of this magnitude has never been undertaken before, I think, in the history of the world. It took Brazil 11 years to reach 40 million recipients.”

Prabowo ordered each kitchen in the programme to be given immediate testing equipment to issue food quality checks, water filter and CCTV for monitoring.

After checks the National Nutrition Agency stated that out of the 9,000 kitchens in the initiative, 40 had been closed due to hygienic purposes. The programme has also raised concerns about its sustainability.