Debates over Red-and-White Cooperative Managers

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - There was little fanfare when President Prabowo Subianto visited the office of Agrinas Pangan Nusantara at Yodya Tower in Cawang, East Jakarta, on Wednesday afternoon, May 6, 2026. Prabowo was accompanied only by Cabinet Secretary Lt. Col. Teddy Indra Wijaya and State Secretary Minister Prasetyo Hadi. The President came to examine discrepancies in data concerning the progress of the Red-and-White village cooperative program.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Agrinas Pangan Nusantara Joao Angelo De Sousa Mota said President Prabowo had earlier received information from the Coordinating Ministry for Food Affairs showing that only around 6,000 cooperatives had been established. Meanwhile, Agrinas Pangan’s data, supplied by village supervisory noncommissioned officers in the field, indicated that more than 8,000 Red-and-White cooperatives were ready to operate.

According to Joao, President Prabowo had called him that morning to clarify the cooperative progress data. “Then suddenly he came in person that afternoon,” Joao told Tempo in Cawang on Wednesday, May 6. Joao said the President stopped by and held discussions at his office for an hour and a half.

Joao then brought Prabowo to the Red-and-White cooperative command center. Inside the room stood digital screens displaying figures on cooperative construction projects across Indonesia. When Prabowo reviewed the statistics at the Agrinas office, the screens showed that 8,169 cooperatives had reached 100-percent completion status. “Perhaps the Coordinating Ministry for Food Affairs had not yet received the latest updated data,” Joao said.

Prabowo, Joao said, monitors the progress of the Red-and-White cooperatives every day because the program is one of the top priorities of the Red-and-White Cabinet. President Prabowo is scheduled to inaugurate thousands of cooperative outlets simultaneously at the end of May.

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