Indonesia Rights Body: End Prabowo Military Coop
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- Indonesia's human rights commission on June 28 called on the government to end basic military training for prospective managers of President Prabowo Subianto's "Red and White Cooperatives" programme, citing five participant deaths during the course's first 10 days.
- The defence ministry reported five deaths between June 17 and June 26, attributing causes to cardiac arrest, heat stroke, tuberculosis, and pneumonia, according to Major-General Ketut Gede Wetan, head of human resource development.
- Nearly 35,000 future cooperative managers must complete the training running from June 14 until July 31 across several regional military training units, part of a programme launched in July 2025 to establish 80,000 village cooperatives and meet Prabowo's 8 per cent economic growth target for 2029.
- Pramono Ubaid Tantowi, an official at the rights commission, argued that cooperatives are economic institutions oriented toward business management and that "basic military training does not directly support" the managerial and financial literacy skills required.
- The defence ministry maintained all participants had undergone medical checks and been declared clear before training, and that the programme involved no strenuous physical activity or combat skills; it pledged a "comprehensive evaluation" with health ministry involvement.
- The rights commission called for a government investigation into the deaths and urged police to immediately request forensic autopsies to establish causes as part of any criminal investigation.
Why it matters: Five trainee deaths in the first 10 days put a human cost on President Prabowo's expansion of military roles into civilian economic programmes, and directly threaten the rollout of a cooperative initiative tied to his 8 per cent growth target for 2029. If the commission's recommendation succeeds, the 35,000-trainee military pipeline faces restructuring mid-deployment; if it doesn't, the defence ministry's promised "comprehensive evaluation" becomes the political cover for continuing as-is.
