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Resty Woro Yuniar

When Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto promised to build 80,000 village cooperatives across the archipelago, the aim was to drive rural growth, strengthen food security and give communities greater control over essential goods and services.
But the deaths of five trainees preparing to manage the cooperatives have cast a shadow over the US$13.4 billion programme, one of Prabowo’s flagship initiatives alongside free nutritious meals and affordable housing.
The trainees were required to take part in a programme that included basic military exercises overseen by the Ministry of Defence even though their future work would focus on managing cooperatives in rural communities.
The fatalities have turned scrutiny towards the design and safety of the training, raising broader questions about whether a reliance on military discipline in policymaking could undermine the programme.
The ministry said the five died after joining a training that began on June 18, citing various medical conditions including heatstroke, cardiac arrest, tuberculosis and pneumonia.
“The national selection committee had conducted [a medical screening] from the beginning of the process. However, in reality, some illnesses went undetected,” Major General Ketut Gede Wetan, head of the human resources development agency at the ministry, told reporters on Saturday.
Ketut said that 32 pregnant women who joined the training would be “sent home” after the incidents, but they would not lose their employment.

Brigadier General Hengki Yuda Setiawan, head of the reserve component centre at the ministry, said that the physical activity was “not a burden” for the participants, and sharpening the “intelligence” of its participants remained the focus of the training.
Hengki dismissed accusations that the training was to militarise the civil programme, saying it was to “instil discipline, integrity, and a work ethic”.
Following the incidents, the ministry vowed to launch a “comprehensive evaluation” of the training. The ministry’s spokesman Rico Ricardo Sirait said on Monday that physical activities would be reduced and participants with underlying health conditions would be marked with white ribbons.
“With these adjustments, tactical and technical military activities are reduced, including shooting, which is no longer part of the current training programme,” Sirait said.
“The focus of these activities is developing discipline, character, leadership, cooperation, responsibility … and managerial readiness for participants as future cooperative managers.”
The training, which includes 35,476 participants, will continue until July 31.
Condemnation over relevance
The death of the five participants sparked widespread condemnation, including from civil groups who questioned the relevance of the military drill to the trainees’ future desk jobs.
“There is no connection between professionalism in managing cooperatives and military training. Cooperative management competency is developed through mastery of organisational governance, participatory leadership, accountability, financial literacy, and community empowerment, not through military training,” Civil Society Coalition for Security Sector Reform said in a statement on June 29.

The National Commission on Human Rights also called for an end to the training, saying that the basic military skills “do not directly support” the participants’ competencies in managing cooperatives.
Made Supriatma, an expert on Indonesian politics at the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, said that the training showed how Prabowo’s deeply ingrained military background had influenced the planning of his civil programmes and policymaking.
“He firmly believes the military [discipline] can accomplish many things, including managing cooperatives, state-owned enterprises, and the food estate projects. This distrust of civilian [structures] is what led him to rely on the military to implement his policies, even though the military is not trained for it,” Made said.
He pointed to the beginning of Prabowo’s administration in 2024, when his ministers had to undergo military-style training in the Military Academy in Central Java.
“Prabowo places the military everywhere because he trusts no one but the military. If he appoints civilians, they must be militarised first,” Made said.
Rural development
The Red and White cooperatives, which will require three billion rupiah (US$167,187) in funding, will provide goods such as fertilisers, pesticides, staple foods, and subsidised items like liquefied petroleum gas tubes. They could also provide healthcare and loans for villagers, store their produce and lend trucks.
To support their operations, the cooperatives could ask for loans of up to three billion rupiah from state-owned banks. The loans would be paid for by village funds, which are provided by the central government every year to accelerate rural economic development.
“Imagine a village owes three billion rupiah, and it will be paid with village funds over six years. So for six years the village will not enjoy development,” Made said.

The top-down nature of these cooperatives also “violates all aspects of cooperatives, which should grow from the grass roots to address the needs of the community”, he added.
Suroto, an adviser at the Indonesian People’s Cooperative Association, said that the programme was part of the government’s “affirmative action” to slash wealth inequality in Indonesia.
“Four families in Indonesia have the same wealth as the poorest 100 million people in Indonesia,” Suroto said.
“I believe this is a breakthrough from the government, which wants to undertake serious economic transformation. This is because there is a transfer of assets totalling 249 trillion rupiah, and these are productive assets owned directly by the community that will stimulate their economy.”
He also said that the cooperatives could curb high prices of subsidised goods in rural areas.
“To date, the distribution channel for subsidised goods has created a moral hazard because the goods are sold by profit-oriented companies,” Suroto said.
“With the Red and White Village Cooperative, subsidised goods will be controlled and monitored by the community itself. If they sell above the highest retail price, it would be like the community is twisting its own neck.”


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The military says the physical activity that trainees take part in to prepare for their civilian roles is ‘not a burden’


The military says the physical activity that trainees take part in to prepare for their civilian roles is ‘not a burden’.


Prabowo Subianto

United States

Made Supriatma

ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute

Indonesian civil trainee deaths spur criticisms of Prabowo’s reliance on military drill

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The military says the physical activity that trainees take part in to prepare for their civilian roles is ‘not a burden’

The military says the physical activity that trainees take part in to prepare for their civilian roles is ‘not a burden’