标签： Asia

On Wednesday, law enforcement investigators from Indonesia’s Attorney General’s Office launched a full-day search of the National Nutrition Agency’s Jakarta headquarters, barring regular staff from the building. The operation came exactly 24 hours after Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto dismissed the agency’s top leader, Dadan Hindayana, amid mounting public and political backlash over the administration’s flagship free meals initiative.

The massive free meals program was a core campaign pledge from President Prabowo, who took office with a promise to tackle widespread malnutrition across Indonesia’s 17,000-island archipelago by providing free daily meals to nearly 90 million children and pregnant women. It was also designed to support domestic agricultural producers by sourcing food directly from local farmers, with a total projected budget of $28 billion running through 2029. Despite its ambitious public health and economic goals, the program has faced intense scrutiny since its rollout, driven by widespread concerns over ballooning operational costs and multiple confirmed outbreaks of food poisoning among school-aged children who received the program’s meals.

Following Tuesday’s leadership shakeup, State Secretary Minister Prasetyo Hadi outlined the official justifications for Hindayana’s dismissal, citing failures to adhere to mandatory standard operating procedures, breakdowns in good governance, and lapses in enforcing the National Nutrition Agency’s own strict food quality protocols. Hindayana was immediately replaced by his former deputy, Nanik S. Deyang, in an effort to maintain continuity. Minister Hadi stressed that the Indonesian government remains fully committed to advancing the free meals program, emphasizing that essential public services must not face any interruptions amid the leadership transition.

To date, government officials have not confirmed whether Wednesday’s office search is connected to a formal criminal investigation into the program’s mismanagement. Mochamad Jeffry, acting spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office, only confirmed that the search operation was ongoing as of Wednesday and declined to share any details on the scope or focus of the inquiry.

Critics of the initiative have long raised broader questions beyond recent food safety incidents, challenging whether the $28 billion program is fiscally sustainable for the Southeast Asian nation, and whether it can be effectively logistically implemented across a country of more than 282 million people spread across thousands of remote islands.

BANGKOK – In a move that reshapes Thailand’s volatile political landscape, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has officially wrapped up all court-mandated legal obligations after King Maha Vajiralongkorn granted a royal pardon that cut short his four-month probation period, with the decree taking full effect on Wednesday.

The 76-year-old billionaire populist, whose influence has rippled through Thai politics for more than 20 years, walked out of a Bangkok prison last month to throngs of cheering supporters. Ever since his release, political observers have engaged in intense speculation over whether he will continue to wield significant sway over the Pheu Thai Party, the leading faction in Thailand’s current governing coalition, even as his family has suggested he may be preparing to step away from frontline politics.

The royal pardon decree, announced to mark Queen Suthida’s birthday, was published in the official Royal Gazette on Tuesday evening. Under Thailand’s constitutional monarchy framework, the king holds exclusive final authority over pardon grants for convicted individuals. The pardon applied to a broad group of qualifying inmates who met pre-set eligibility criteria; Thaksin qualified for full clemency because he had already been released on probation and had fewer than 12 months left on his original commuted sentence.

Thaksin first entered politics as a telecommunications tycoon, launching his own political party in 1998 before winning the prime ministership in 2001. His time in office ended abruptly in 2006, when a military coup ousted him while he was traveling overseas, triggering nearly 20 years of deep political polarization that continues to define Thai public life.

Even during 15 years of self-imposed exile following the coup, political parties aligned with Thaksin repeatedly won general elections and returned to power. His signature populist policies, which expanded access to public services and microloans for low-income households, built a fiercely loyal base among working-class and rural voters, particularly in Thailand’s northern and northeastern regions. But his overwhelming popularity and confrontational governing style also created intractable divisions between his grassroots supporters and the country’s established urban elite, royalist factions, and military establishment.

Thaksin returned to Thailand in 2023, after which he began serving an eight-year prison sentence handed down on corruption-related charges, including convictions for abusing his prime ministerial authority to benefit his personal business holdings and improperly approving a state lottery project that caused public financial losses. Shortly after his conviction, King Maha Vajiralongkorn commuted his sentence to one year, and Thaksin was initially allowed to serve his term in a private suite at Bangkok’s Police Hospital on medical grounds.

After widespread public outcry over claims of unfair preferential treatment, Thailand’s Supreme Court ordered Thaksin moved to a mainstream prison to serve his sentence in September 2025. He was granted parole on May 11, having served eight months of his one-year commuted sentence. As a condition of his parole, he was required to wear an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet, with his original four-month probation period set to run through early September. His legal representative, attorney Winyat Chatmontree, confirmed to the Associated Press on Wednesday that all legal restrictions have now been lifted, though administrative procedures to remove the monitoring bracelet will take several additional days to complete.

The early end to Thaksin’s sentence comes as Thailand’s governing coalition navigates shifting internal dynamics, leaving open the question of how much the former premier will participate in national politics moving forward.

Indonesia’s flagship free school meals initiative, a cornerstone of President Prabowo Subianto’s 2024 presidential election platform, has been roiled by widespread public health incidents, corruption probes, and mounting political pressure, leading to the dismissal of the agency chief tasked with overseeing the multi-billion-dollar project.

The ambitious programme was designed to deliver daily free meals to 80 million school-aged children across the country, aimed at addressing childhood malnutrition and easing household financial burdens. But within months of its January 2025 launch, the initiative began to face cascading crises. As of April this year, local education advocacy group Network for Education Watch has linked at least 33,000 cases of food poisoning across the archipelago to the programme, forcing authorities to confront widespread public anger and demands for a full suspension of the scheme.

Last week, Indonesia’s anti-corruption commission formally filed a complaint over documented budget inconsistencies across hundreds of programme food preparation kitchens. Just seven days after that filing, on Wednesday, Prabowo moved to remove Dadan Hindayana, an entomologist who had served as head of the National Nutrition Agency, the governing body responsible for the free meals initiative. Hours before the dismissal was announced, officials from the Attorney General’s Office executed a raid on the National Nutrition Agency’s headquarters, blocking staff from accessing the building as investigators collected documents.

Dadan has been replaced by his former deputy, Nanik Sudaryati Deyang, a former journalist who worked as a member of Prabowo’s 2024 presidential campaign team. The leadership shakeup has drawn mixed reactions from the Indonesian public and policy analysts. While some welcomed the change as a necessary first step to address the programme’s failures, many critics have dismissed it as a superficial cosmetic fix that does not address deep-rooted structural flaws. “What the programme needs right now isn’t just swapping people, but a total overhaul of the concept and system. Without that, it’ll just keep being a source of problems,” Indonesian social media user Ahmad Arif wrote on platform X. Additional criticism has centered on Nanik’s lack of relevant professional experience: she has no background in nutrition or food safety management, a gap that has raised concerns about her ability to turn the troubled initiative around.

Beyond the public health crisis, Dadan also faced backlash for a series of controversial public statements, including a recommendation that all Indonesians drink two liters of milk per day and a proposal to incorporate insects and sago worms into the free meal menus. The programme itself has also drawn intense scrutiny over its enormous price tag, at a time when Indonesia is facing mounting economic headwinds including shrinking trade surpluses and a depreciating national currency. Just recently, authorities scaled back services from six days a week to five, a cut framed as a necessary response to global economic volatility spurred by the ongoing conflict between the U.S.-Israel alliance and Iran.

President Prabowo has not shied away from acknowledging the programme’s shortcomings. In a speech delivered last month, he admitted the scheme was beset “with many problems” and pledged to take firm action against any individuals found violating rules or abusing public authority. Even amid the scandals, however, the president maintains that the programme retains broad support among ordinary Indonesians. “Free nutritious meals are so important for our nation,” he said. “Everywhere I go, I meet ordinary people, farmers, saying, ‘sir, please don’t stop the free nutritious meals programme, this really helps my grandchildren to be able to eat’.”

Additional on-the-ground reporting for this story was contributed by Astudestra Ajengrastri in Jakarta.

CANBERRA, Australia — On his first international visit since taking office, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Matthew Wale confirmed Wednesday that his incoming administration will launch a full review of the country’s classified 2022 security agreement with Beijing, a deal that sparked widespread regional and global geopolitical concern over potential Chinese military expansion in the South Pacific.

The bilateral security treaty, negotiated and signed under Wale’s predecessor Manasseh Sogavare, has drawn intense scrutiny from Western powers and regional nations including Australia and the United States since 2022. Critics have raised alarms that the pact could clear a path for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy to establish a permanent military outpost in the strategically located South Pacific island nation, a shift that would reshape regional security dynamics.

Wale, who won a parliamentary vote to claim the prime ministership on May 15, had repeatedly demanded public transparency for the treaty’s full text during his election campaign. He told reporters Wednesday that he only gained access to a full copy of the agreement within the past few days, after replacing unnamed officials in key government posts.

“I haven’t completed a full detailed review, but I have been able to review the initial text,” Wale stated during a press conference in the Australian capital Canberra. “I have been reflecting deeply on this agreement. The treaty includes a binding nondisclosure clause, which means I cannot release its full text to the public immediately. However, a comprehensive review of this pact is on the table, alongside parallel reviews of all other security agreements the Solomon Islands holds with nations across the globe.”

The small island nation, which has a total population of just 700,000 and sits roughly 1,200 miles northeast of Australia’s northeastern coast, has been the center of competing geopolitical influence in the South Pacific in recent years. During Wale’s visit, he and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a landmark new agreement to negotiate a broad comprehensive strategic treaty that will upgrade the bilateral relationship, with coverage spanning both security cooperation and economic development partnership.

Wale’s predecessor had pushed back against Australian efforts to deepen bilateral ties, but the new prime minister framed the updated agreement as a full reset of the relationship. “We recognize there have been significant frictions in our bilateral ties over the past several years, and this reset addresses those issues,” Wale said.

Albanese made clear Australia’s position that it should be the Solomon Islands’ first-choice primary security partner, rather than China. “We have stated openly and clearly that Australia aims to be the preferred security partner for nations across our region, and we believe that regional security issues should be managed by the Pacific family,” Albanese told reporters.

Wale echoed that framing, noting that centering regional leadership for local security is “the direction we want to move in as a nation.”

Under the existing 2022 deal with China, Beijing has deployed police training instructors to the Solomon Islands to build local law enforcement capacity. The island nation does not maintain a standing military force, so its national police service carries a much broader set of security responsibilities than police forces in countries with dedicated military institutions.

The Solomon Islands first shifted its diplomatic recognition to Beijing from Taipei in 2019 under Sogavare’s administration, a move that delivered a major diplomatic win for China, which claims the self-governing island democracy of Taiwan as an inalienable part of its sovereign territory.