Indonesian Lawmaker Urges President to Issue Village Cooperative Regulation

Lawmaker Rieke Diah Pitaloka has called on President Prabowo Subianto to swiftly issue a presidential regulation for the integrated management of village cooperatives. Pitaloka, a member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), stated that such a regulation is crucial to consolidate existing rules while a new Cooperative Law is still under parliamentary discussion.

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The regulation is needed to end the fragmentation of rules, while awaiting the ratification of the Cooperative Law currently being discussed by the DPR.

The regulation is urgently needed because the village cooperative program is already underway, but its implementation faces significant challenges. Pitaloka highlighted findings from a study indicating fragmented regulations, overlapping ministerial and institutional authorities, institutional disharmony, unclear legal status for human resources, and a lack of integrated national data and oversight. These issues, she warned, could lead to conflicts of interest, abuse of power, mismanagement, and corruption.

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The study's findings show fragmentation of regulations, overlapping authority between ministries and agencies, institutional disharmony, unclear legal status of human resources, and lack of integrated national data and oversight.

Pitaloka stressed that if the government is serious about using village cooperatives to fulfill the mandate of Article 33 of the 1945 Constitution, the regulatory architecture must be unified. She explained that cooperatives are strategic instruments for this constitutional mandate. However, success should be measured not only by the number of cooperatives formed or physical infrastructure built, but by the quality of governance that guarantees legal certainty, protects human resources, secures state finances, and prevents corruption from planning to operation.

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These households, who have abandoned everything in their villages of origin, need urgent assistance, both in terms of food and non-food items: food, kitchen utensils, tarpaulins, medicines, and financial means to improve their living conditions, especially those of women and children.

In her proposal, Pitaloka recommended that the Ministry of Cooperatives be solely responsible for the program's implementation. The ministry should be designated as the primary program authority and the custodian of integrated data, serving as the basis for planning, control, and evaluation. The "red and white" village cooperative program is a priority for the Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka administration, which aims to establish 80,000 cooperatives nationwide. As of July 4, 2026, the Ministry of Cooperatives reported that 35,874 cooperative land plots have been verified, with 14,656 physical outlets completed and approximately 30,000 more locations in various stages of development.

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If the government is serious about making village cooperatives an instrument for implementing the mandate of Article 33 of the 1945 Constitution, then its regulatory architecture must be built into one cohesive regulation.