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View all search resultsPrabowo’s cooperatives program faces legal challenge
A village chief, an independent cooperative and a civil organization have turned to the Constitutional Court to challenge the Red and White cooperatives program, President Prabowo Subianto’s second flagship program to face legal pushback after the free nutritious meal program.
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A soldier sweeps the entrance to a Red and White Cooperatives facility on July 22 in Suka Damai village, Muaro Jambi regency, Jambi. (Antara/Wahdi Setiawan)
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village chief, an independent cooperative and a civil organization have turned to the Constitutional Court to challenge the Red and White cooperatives program, in a case that marks the second of President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship programs to face legal pushback.
The petition challenges the state-mandated nationwide establishment of the Red and White cooperatives and the use of village funds to finance the program. It was filed on Tuesday by Prawatan village chief Sabiq Muhammad from Klaten in Central Java, Bogor-based NGO the Sajogyo Institute and a Yogyakarta-based independent cooperative not financed by the government, Koperasi Edukarya Negeri Lestari.
In the petition, they said villages have their specific needs that cannot be addressed through a universal program and that any development priorities must be determined through consensual decisions of people living in the villages rather than through unilateral decisions of the central government.
“The central government can’t assume that it knows best what every village needs,” Muhamad Saleh, one of lawyers representing the petitioners, said in a statement on Tuesday. “Some communities need road repairs and better irrigation systems, while others need school support, health services or support for the local economy.”
The petitioners asked the court to review provisions in the Village Law, the Cooperatives Law and the Central-Regional Fiscal Relations Law that regulate cooperative systems and allow the central government to dictate what national programs must be financed by village funds.
Village funds are allocated each year from the state budget for supporting infrastructure projects and public services in villages across the country.
Read also: Plan to slash village funds to finance Red and White cooperatives draws scrutiny
