Legal Literacy - In the opening of the 1945 Constitution, the founders of this nation explicitly wrote that the goal of the Indonesian nation and state is"To educate the nation." This phrase is not merely poetic rhetoric, but an imperative mandate that the nation's top priority is the cognitive development, intellectuality, and reasoning capacity of its citizens. However, today we are witnessing a sad irony. Amidst Indonesia's PISA scores (Programme for International Student Assessment) crawling at the bottom of the world, the government is instead choosing a less relevant shortcut, namely the Free Nutritious Meal Program (MBG).

The narrative being built is seemingly noble, namely nutritional improvement to create a superior generation. However, if we dissect it with the knife of public policy analysis and economic theory, this program is nothing more than a dangerous diversion of focus. We are witnessing a paradigm shift of the state from The Education State to The Nanny State . The state is no longer busy thinking about how children think critically, but busy managing lunch catering menus. This is a subtle betrayal of the mandate to educate the nation.

The State's Failure to Differentiate Welfare and Education

The government seems to be experiencing confusion in distinguishing between social welfare policies (social welfare) and education policies (education policy).…