My mind has been a bit heavy lately after catching up on the national news. As someone living in a rural village, I cannot help but feel frustrated whenever a major public system feels poorly engineered, especially when the impact directly hits the economic order of the people around me. Two massive government programs have been bugging me lately: the Free Nutritious Meal initiative (MBG) and the sudden emergence of the Koperasi Merah Putih.
To be honest, when the free meal program was first announced, my initial thoughts were quite positive. In my head, I pictured it working like school cafeterias abroad, or at least like elite private schools here in Indonesia. I imagined standard school canteens being transformed into clean, buffet-style kitchens where students could just grab high-quality food prepared by in-house kitchen staff on a fixed salary. Sounds great on paper, right?
But the reality on the ground tells a completely different story. Instead of empowering the schools internally, the program was outsourced to third-party vendors who distribute pre-packed meals. Interestingly, as of writing this article in June 2026, the head of this program was recently removed from his position and is currently being investigated by the Attorney General’s Office (AGO).
What I have come to realize is that this noble-sounding initiative quickly shifted into a fresh cash cow for middlemen. Look, I get that business owners want to make a profit, but this middleman model actually kills local micro-businesses. The regular school canteen vendors are losing their livelihoods because fewer students buy from them now.
The systemic weirdness continues with another project that randomly popped up near my house: Koperasi Merah Putih. Based on a few reviews I watched on YouTube, it is basically a government-managed minimarket. To this day, my casual brain still cannot process the actual urgency behind this. Do we not already have village cooperatives (KUD) or village-owned enterprises (BUMDes) that were designed from the ground up to boost the grassroots economy?
What blows my mind is the ecosystem behind it. Koperasi Merah Putih reportedly sources its inventory from the parent company of retail giants like Indomaret. Yet, there is a loud political narrative claiming they want to halt the expansion of Indomaret and Alfamart entirely. This is the most absurd monopoly logic I have ever heard. They rely on them for supply, but at the same time, they want to limit their growth just to gain total market dominance. These private minimarkets have spent decades building their brands, supply chains, and logistics down to the sub-district level, only to have their expansion frozen by an instant program with vague goals.
Looking at both of these programs, my perspective has shifted a bit. It turns out that when public policies are rushed without thinking about long-term stability, it ruins the existing ecosystem that was already running fine. When regulations are forced for the benefit of a few, it is the lower income class that ultimately suffers from the system crash.
Of course, this is just my personal opinion and a little rant from my digital desk in the village. Everyone views these government programs through a different lens, and I completely respect that. I just hope that in the future, the systems built in this country are better optimized, stable, and genuinely made to help ordinary people rather than just serving as seasonal political trends.
References:
Pendapatan Pedagang Kantin Turun karena Program Makan Bergizi Gratis, Pemerintah Evaluasi
Mantan Kepala BGN Dadan Hindayana dan dua eks wakil kepala BGN jadi tersangka korupsi
Koperasi Merah Putih Viral, Terekam Ambil Stok dari Gudang Indomaret
Mendes Jelaskan Soal Isu Mau Tutup Alfamart-Indomart: Setop Izin Baru