By Duncan Graham 

Feb 17, 2025

Before the 18th century Enlightenment, church and state in Europe were one. In Indonesia, fears that Islam will infiltrate civic affairs go back to the founding of the Republic. Instead, the threats are not from the mosques, but the military.

The nation with more Muslims than any other state is constitutionally secular, but it’s heading towards a stratocracy.

Since becoming the eighth president, Prabowo Subianto has been bringing khaki into national and regional public offices following the policy of second President Suharto from the last century.

Prabowo’s former father-in-law called it Dwifungsi – two functions. It was widely discredited and grossly inefficient. Unelected generals had reserved seats in the Parliament; lesser ranks were posted to run departments where they had few wanted skills.

Suharto was a former general. Likewise Prabowo, though his history is ignominious; in 1998 he was cashiered for disobeying orders. He fled to exile in Jordan, but he’s now back imposing his military fantasies and undermining democracy.

He’s even forced his overstocked 109-strong ministry (13 are women) into fatigues and humiliating parades. Like Donald Trump, he plans to scrap the awkward and costly elections and bring back appointments. As in the US, these jobs would go to mates, rellies and donors.

The policy in the world’s fourth-largest country isn’t confined to setting up regional military centres; it’s also putting lower ranks into menial jobs, delivering LPG gas bottles to the poor and lunches to school kids. This isn’t assuaging hunger, but creating fear in West Papua.

About 5000 soldiers from other provinces have been hunting tribesmen demanding independence; a low-level guerilla war has been underway in the mountains and jungles for about 50 years.

Civilian families in the occupied province hate being shadowed by armed men and are wary of their intentions, for one of their tactics is torture. Now they’re dishing out food.

The imagination flares: What better way to subdue dissidents than by poisoning their food? There’s no evidence that’s happening, but the fear is real. Who couldn’t have foreseen the reaction?

The lunch box program comes from a promise last year by Prabowo during the presidential election campaign, which he won. Makan Bergizi Gratis (MBG free nutritious meals) was poorly planned and is now being badly executed.

The Papuans’ distrust has been reinforced by the story of 40 students from a school in Central Java throwing up after gulping down free meals. Indonesian media reports claimed dozens had fallen ill in North Kalimantan. Poor hygiene has been blamed.

MBG is a worthy bid to curb stunting that cripples about 20% of the next generation. (The Australian figure is 2.3%.)

Lousy diets plus poor access to services, particularly in remote regions, are blamed by UNICEF for the tragedy. Two of five children under five don’t get basic food groups.

Other factors: Pregnant mums need top-quality tucker. Anything less lets in infections that stunt the babe’s growth in the womb. Six per cent of newborns are underweight.

With these figures it’s clear education on pregnancy and child rearing is as important as free food. A whole-of-problem strategy is needed.

The original budget allocation of Rp 15,000 ($1.50) for an MBG meal was slashed by Prabowo to Rp 10,000 – a sum too small for wholesome ingredients, cooking and delivery. So the armed forces have been recruited, distressing a society where trust is as short as protein.

“The people of Papua are complaining and rejecting the free nutritious food for school children because the food is provided by the TNI (Army) and Polri (police),” local religious leader Wenior Pakage told the media.

“They’re afraid for their children that they’ll be murdered with poison, resulting in an extermination. The community wants the program scrapped and the funds transferred to pay school fees so students can obtain knowledge for free.”

Hundreds of kids in uniform reportedly left classes and protested in the streets of Yahukimo Regency, waving banners rejecting MBG. The story can’t be independently verified because the foreign media is banned from Papua.

Schooling is compulsory nationally and supposedly gratis, but fees for registration, books, uniforms, teacher gratuities, funds for new buildings and other imposts are common. They’re usually masked as “donations” and vary from school to school.

The money to make learning free is here in abundance, literally underfoot. Papua is where Croesus took a breather and stayed.

The western half of the island of New Guinea has a population of around four million. The indigenous people are nominally Christian; the newcomers are mainly Muslim. They’ve migrated from Java, contractors and miners to work on the Grasberg opencut and underground copper and gold mines, among the largest in the world.

This joint venture between the Indonesian Government and the US company Freeport has a workforce of more than 30,000. In 2023, it reportedly generated a net income of US$3.16 billion.

Prabowo is no cheerleader for democracy and reportedly wants funds “redirected to public welfare projects, including providing free meals for schoolchildren”. Who’d think the savings might go elsewhere in a country shot through with corruption?

The MBG idea seems worthwhile, but its implementation has hit many snags apart from Papua fear and Central Java food poisoning. Unpalatable meals and insufficient funds are also among the complaints.

Project head Dadan Hindayana wants  an extra US$6.11 billion just to reach a quarter of the target of 83 million by the end of 2025.

Prabowo’s reputation with the wong cilik (the masses) rides on making the MBG work and the scheme permanent. This can’t be done on dollar a day meals without using bad food and the military as waiters.

To do good, the president’s kitchen needs cleanliness, a new menu and professional caterers. Any tariff shake-up will mean less money for the army.

For a pseudo-military man who has been out of the bang-bang business for 27 years, but still sees it as the way to go, a massive makeover might seem indigestible. But it’s doomed without a huger cash uplift.

That may come from savings elsewhere, though nothing specific. One suggestion is for the meals to be cut to one a week  an idea horrifying nutritionists.

“It should be for five days to match the nutritional adequacy measure,” said expert Tengku Syahdana. “If for one day, the needs can’t be met.”

Duncan Graham 

Duncan Graham has been a journalist for more than 40 years in print, radio and TV. He is the author of People Next Door (UWA Press). He is now writing for the English language media in Indonesia from within Indonesia. Duncan Graham has an MPhil degree, a Walkley Award, two Human Rights Commission awards and other prizes for his radio, TV and print journalism in Australia. He lives in East Java.

We have reasons to worry about expanding the roles of the military beyond its domain as defender of the nation against external threats. Editorial board (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, February 13, 2025

the return

Cabinet retreat cartoon (JP/T. Sutanto)

President Prabowo Subianto has once again displayed his penchant for military figures filling strategic posts within his government with the recent appointment of Maj. Gen. Novi Helmy Prasetya as the new president director of the State Logistics Agency (Bulog). State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister Erick Thohir gave no compelling reasons for the choice of an active military officer for the civilian post other than a vague reference to the “revitalization of Bulog management” and the “changing perspectives” of the agency. But further stoking confusion, the Indonesian Military (TNI) announced on Monday that Novi had been promoted on Jan. 31 to the three-star job of commanding general of the TNI Academy, in a decree that was signed over a week before he was named the new Bulog chief. TNI spokesperson Maj. Gen. Hariyanto said on Tuesday that Novi’s appointment as Bulog chief was part of a “deal for a strategic partnership in food security between the agency and the military” and because “the SOEs Ministry sees Novi as having a chain of command that can support the delivery of food security programs”. Whatever the reasons behind Novi’s assignment to Bulog, the appointment is legally flawed and sends yet another message of the return of the TNI’s dual function, just like during the New Order, at the expense of civilian supremacy. The New Order regime was marked by significant economic growth, but also widespread human rights abuses and suppression of political freedoms.


The prevailing 2004 TNI Law says that military officers may only occupy civilian positions after they have been discharged from duty. Under this law, those who remain in active service can be seconded to certain positions in seven state institutions overseeing defense, security or intelligence and to the Search and Rescue Agency, the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) or the Supreme Court, which manages military courts.

We recall during the COVID-19 pandemic the government resorted to military deployment to assist with contact tracing efforts and health protocol enforcement or to run emergency hospitals for treating COVID patients. But that was in line with the law, which outlines 14 types of operations other than war that justify TNI participation, such as disasters and humanitarian missions. Prabowo, a former Army general himself, might want Bulog to adopt military-like discipline and focus and a clear chain of command while playing a leading role in food security. Novi is not the first man in uniform to lead Bulog, anyway, as police general Budi Waseso once led the agency in 2018-2023. Indeed, Prabowo’s presidency has seen a growing presence of the military in the government. Many of his picks for ministerial, deputy ministerial and state agency head posts are people with a military background.

He even brought members of his bloated cabinet to a military-like bootcamp at the beginning of his presidency as his way of instilling discipline. Later this month the same military-style retreat will be organized for new governors, mayors, regents and their deputies. Ironically, the public has faith in the TNI, as seen in various opinion polls that consistently rank the military as the most trusted national institution. From having the military running much of his flagship free meals program for schoolchildren to ordering the TNI to form 100 special battalions that will be assigned to farming, fisheries and animal husbandry, Prabowo’s government personifies the return of the military to civilian affairs. He might see the military style of government as more helpful to cut through the sclerotic bureaucracy in order to get things done, but we have reasons to worry about expanding the roles of the military beyond its domain as defender of the nation against external threats. It is hard to hold the military accountable given its lack of transparency and its culture of impunity, particularly when it comes to violence committed by soldiers against civilians.  We cannot dismiss concerns that the TNI’s increasing involvement in civilian affairs may pave the way for a potential return to authoritarian rule.