Free lunch and better healthcare among Prabowo's priorities

New Indonesian President also wants to boost education, have country be self-sufficient in food

- Hariz Baharudin Indonesia Correspondent

JAKARTA – Just hours after being inaugurated as Indonesia's eighth President, Mr Prabowo Subianto unveiled his Cabinet, a hefty 48-member group of men and women who will help him make decisions to lead the country.

Mr 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 been 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 people by 2029, with an expected budget of 400 trillion rupiah.