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The following post was first published on New Bloom on September 5, 2025, and is republished on Global Voice under a content partnership agreement.
Starting in late August, protests broke out in cities across Indonesia. The demonstrations were initially triggered by perceived financial corruption, related to news that members of the legislature were receiving luxurious housing subsidies. Indonesian police responded to the protests with overwhelming force and murdered a delivery driver, Affan Kurniawan, which led to a new wave of demonstrations. To shed light on the situation, New Bloom’s Brian Hioe spoke to Iftitah Sari, researcher at the Institute for Criminal Justice Reform.
Brian Hioe (BH): Could you first introduce yourself?
Iftitah Sari (VR): My name is Iftitah Sari — people usually call me Tita for short. I’m working as a researcher at the Institute for Criminal Justice Reform. We’re an independent NGO working for criminal justice in Indonesia. We’re part of the CSO coalition regarding democracy issues in Indonesia as well.
BH: Many images of the protests have circulated internationally. But it often happens that people see the images of the flames and protests without knowing what’s happening there. Can you talk a bit about why protests have broken out and why they’re taking place?
IS: It’s massive nationwide. It’s not just in Jakarta or big cities, it’s also in small cities in Java, in other islands outside Java, too. Before it began in Jakarta, there was a small riot in a small city in Java called Pati.
I don’t know if you were following this as well, but it started a couple of weeks before. There was a demand from people asking to lower the rise of taxes, local taxes especially.
People in Pati started this movement. It started to receive attention nationwide because it was very chaotic. The regency, the leader of the city, was being protested in public. People started to throw their shoes in public spaces. We can’t separate the movement from this riot there.
In looking at the overall picture, our government has demonstrated many irrational policies. There are policies that they try to promote, people have their say about it, and they try to retract it, especially regarding economic and tax policies.
It’s getting hard for people to meet their daily needs. This is perceived by people from the middle to lower economic classes, so that is another reason as well, from an economic perspective. And it is very hard for people to get a job. Unemployment rates are on the rise — they are higher than ever.
The insensitive and unsympathetic comments from some members of parliament, who were mostly from those who are celebrities or have famous backgrounds, and later became members of parliament. Politicians, too, though it is politicians who are problematic in statements, saying people who call for the dissolution of parliament are a moron or stupid (tolol in Indonesian).
We don’t know who initiated the first movement on August 25th, but it’s organic, as we see in Pati and other small cities in Java. They’re trying to protest against their regency. And it’s widespread in other cities as well.
In Jakarta, they continued the demonstrations after the 25th and they continued to the 28th. That’s the main peak before the public unrest and violence. An ojol (ojek online) driver, Affan, was killed by the police while delivering an order. It made people become angrier, especially with anger directed at the police.
Before, the focus was on the parliament. On their work and the government, as well. But since this incident on the 28th, with Affan’s death, anger turned toward the police. But in the past couple of years, and until today, the police was always a target of calls for reforms. People in civil society have always called for reform of the police, as police brutality was very unreasonable.
Now, the demonstrations are getting more and more widespread in many cities in Indonesia.
BH: There have been a number of protests in recent memory in Indonesia. For example, Indonesia Gelap, then May Day. How does this fit into the other protests? You mentioned the economic factor, but there also seems to be a lot of anger with President Prabowo in power. Prabowo has, of course, been around for a while, and now he has finally taken power.
IS: As I mentioned, this is the peak of the people’s anger. Previously, the situation developed in a fashion where protests recurred many times in a short period. That is why many people are tired of this. But what is different from the previous demonstration is that, with May Day, we always have police brutality. There are always many people arrested, and they are victims of police violence.
We also had a riot in 2020 during the pandemic. Maybe because of the pandemic, the wave of demonstrations was not as strong as it is now. Then there was also the Omnibus Law, which led to Indonesia Gelap. When it was May Day, it wasn’t the peak of anger. But this time, there is a new level of anger.
BH: What are the demands from the demonstrators this time? There are calls for ending politicians’ luxury perks. Likewise, is it a central group coordinating the protests? Or is it very decentralized and spontaneous?
IS: There are many demands. We call it New Generation. They are civil society influencers, and they are youngsters. They’re the young generation that cares about the political situation in Indonesia. They summarised 17+8 demands. It’s also available in English.
They are decentralised, and each of the groups in different regions may have different demands. They try to recap and summarize what the demands of the people of this wave of demonstrations are. There’s a deadline until September 5.
There is information that there will be more demonstrations that day, as well. So we’ll wait and see.
The 17+8 demands are about structural changes. This is a political movement, so there is a demand to change how the government chooses their competent or high-ranking officials. This movement is more political than technocratic, as we would call it, so we wouldn’t demand certain laws to be revoked. Corruption is everywhere, and we believe that this chaotic system is because of the people sitting in government who are not competent.
Nepotism is prevalent, and who sits in government is not based on merit. This occurs not only in the hiring of government workers, but also in most government institutions. Promotions in the police and other institutions are often problematic, as they may occur due to connections rather than based on merit. People believe that this is a contributing factor to the chaotic policymaking process, which is not in the public interest.
Another demand is, of course, about how to make sure that people get more from the welfare system, such as regarding employment, jobs, and in the sector of criminal justice. As we are also working on these issues, we demand police reform, but we also realize that the reform of the police will not be there before a change in the political system.
If the political system is like this, it’s not going anywhere. We see addressing structural problems as necessary.
BH: How has the government responded to demonstrators? One way has been, of course, violence in such a manner that has led to international condemnations. There has also been the attempt to depict the protests as deliberately engineered rather than spontaneous and organic.
IS: The president responded a few days ago. He made a statement saying that the people who commit acts of violence, such as arson against the parliament offices in some cities, he said it was treason and terrorism, rather than seeing what the people demand.
It’s not clear who committed acts of arson. It’s not part of the civic movement, but we cannot deny that someone who is not part of us wanted there to be more chaos. They have their own aims.
We don’t really think Prabowo has responded to us and understands what we are worried about. Instead, he only responded to events as the arson, and one or two members of the police who were attacked. He mentioned the promotion and his support of reforms in the police that we think will make them more violent, since they have an incentive to arrest, and see civilians as enemies. Because they will be promoted if they get hurt in the protests. I don’t think that’s an appropriate action for the government.
BH: What comes next for the protests? The government doesn’t seem ready to back down, and on the other hand, there is a very clear set of demands.
IS: This is a marathon movement. It’s going to be long. What we see and what we project is that it is a political movement. If there is no political commitment to reform from the government, then the movement will not cool down.
We’re also concerned about how some groups and people want to create more chaos in the protests. We’re worried that at some point, the government will take measures to declare martial law. This will lead to a continued shrinking of civic space.
