‘Not body-shaming’: Indonesia’s Health Minister defends controversial viral remarks over men’s jean size

He advised the public to keep their body mass index (BMI) under 24 to reduce the risk of health conditions linked to visceral fat, such as heart disease, hypertension and diabetes.

“I don’t expect most people to immediately understand BMI or its health implications, so I used pant size as a relatable reference,” he was quoted as saying by Jakarta Globe, in defence of his earlier controversial statement.

BMI measures the ratio of height to weight of a person to estimate the amount of body fat.

Budi drew public criticism for failing to account for height differences, which can naturally result in larger waistlines.

“Who says that anyone who buys pants above size 32 inches is definitely obese? Maybe he is just over 170cm tall,” a netizen commented on Instagram, in response to a post on the minister’s statement by news outlet Kumparan. 

“He (Budi) claims it is not body shaming, yet he points fingers at people wearing that size, saying they will die sooner. This minister keeps making blunders,” the same netizen added. 

“Sir, I am 183cm tall, if I bought size 33 pants, they’d look like hotpants on me,” another netizen wrote. 

Some netizens even questioned whether Budi had considered President Prabowo Subianto when making the statement.

“What’s the president’s pant size, sir?” netizen @aksaravivani wrote, also on Instagram. 

“Is he taking a jab at the president? That’s harsh! Is he not afraid of being removed from office?” said netizen @kokokeuangan. 

At the health event in Central Jakarta on Wednesday, the Health Minister had also emphasised the importance of regularly checking blood pressure, in addition to monitoring waist circumference.

He advised those with blood pressure above the normal limit of 120/80mmHg to immediately visit a community health centre or ‘Puskesmas’, where treatment services are available free of charge.

“Don’t act tough if you have high blood pressure, get it checked and treated right away,” he was quoted as saying by Kumparan.