Major protests in Indonesia began on August 28, 2025
Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2025 6:39 pm
This is the best article I've seen: https://www.facebook.com/andrea.ferrari ... pjqGnzoQLl
It says:
Indonesia has been hit by a strong wave of protests, which began on August 28, 2025 and have put dramatically under pressure on President Prabowo Subianto’s government. The leader, elected in November 2024 and settled in January 2025, faces an immediate social emergency that, in just a few days, has taken on a national dimension: from the streets of the capital Jakarta, the protests have spread to numerous cities in the province and even to the tourist Bali. Tens of thousands of people took to the square and in various cases the protest has degenerated into clashes and violence, with at least five people dead. For the new executive this is a decisive test bench, with direct implications on internal stability and on his own political credibility.
The roots of the tensions can be identified in a double source of social discontent that has found convergence in the squares of the country. On one hand, popular outrage over the benefits granted to Indonesian parliamentarians, in particular a monthly living allowance of 50 million rupees, equivalent to almost ten times the minimum wage of the capital. On the other hand, deeper social and economic claims about working class living conditions. Protesters have indeed called for a minimum wage increase for 2026, as well as substantial tax reforms that include raising the non-taxable income threshold and eliminating taxes on year-end allowances, settlements and retirement benefits.
The protests began as a workers' mobilization organized by the Coalition of Trade Unions and the Workers' Party, under the slogan HOSTUM which means "Eliminate outsourcing, reject low wages". The movement initially involved about ten thousand workers from the industrial areas of Karawang, Bekasi, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Jakarta, who were later joined by university students and political activists. This convergence between the world of labor and the student movement has amplified the scope of the demonstrations, turning sectoral claims into a broader protest against social inequalities and the country’s economic management, in a context marked by mass layoffs, mainly in the textile industry, and rising cost of goods of necessity.
The situation escalated dramatically after Affan Kurniawan, a 21-year-old motorcyclist taxi driver, was hit and killed by an armored police vehicle during protests on August 29. This tragic episode, captured by cell phones and circulated massively on Indonesian social media, turned what started as a protest against parliamentary privilege into a social uprising involving wider sections of the population. The death of the young worker has fueled calls for justice and punishment from the perpetrators who have expressed themselves in increasingly furious actions, with protesters setting fire to regional parliament buildings in three provinces and targeting the homes of government officials, including the one of Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, looting them.
In the face of the escalating crisis, President Prabowo has had to make the politically significant decision to cancel his participation in the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) summit that began today in China, where a "Victory Day" is also planned to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Asia. The waiver of this event is particularly relevant considering that it is a crucial appointment for the so-called "multipolar front" and for Xi Jinping, who intends to use the occasion to promote the image of stability and self-reliance of both China and its strategic partners. The fact that Indonesian internal turbulence has forced Prabowo to desert an event so symbolically important for the Sino-Russian axis and the multipolar alternative to the Western order constitutes a significant diplomatic embarrassing element and highlights the fragility of social balances in the region.
International analysts have offered articulated interpretations of this crisis, framing it in the broader context of Indonesian socio-economic transformations. Eve Warburton, a researcher at the Australian National University, described the protests as a reflection of the "existing class gap between voters and politicians", noting that "this gap becomes apparent when economic conditions change: recent mass layoffs have left people unsafe as job informality grows." From his singing, Vedi Hadiz, director of the Asia Institute at the University of Melbourne, interpreted the situation as an expression of "genuine popular remorse" in the face of "a deteriorating economy, cuts to public spending, corruption", emphasizing how "nobody believes significant progress is being made to address these problems and the feeling widespread is that Parliament has lost contact with the common people".
Authorities responded with increasingly stricter emergency measures, deploying army and navy personnel to preside over sensitive areas of Jakarta and blocking access to the Sudirman central financial district. Police have used tear gas and water cannons to disperse protesters, while several social media platforms, including TikTok, have voluntarily suspended some features to limit the spread of content that could fuel further unrest. The government has accused not better precise external elements of wanting to sow "anarchy and chaos", to quote President Prabowo's words.
The chronology of events highlights how quickly the situation has degenerated: on August 26, the first protests took place with 312 arrests, of which 205 were minors; on August 28 saw the intensification of demonstrations; on the evening of August 29, Affan Kurniawan was recorded which served as a catalyst for the nationwide extension of the protests on August 30, culminating in fires at regional parliaments; finally, today looting of government officials' homes and the cancellation of the presidential trip to China took place. This time lapse shows how an initially circumcised protest turned in a few days into a national political crisis that tests Ind
It says:
Indonesia has been hit by a strong wave of protests, which began on August 28, 2025 and have put dramatically under pressure on President Prabowo Subianto’s government. The leader, elected in November 2024 and settled in January 2025, faces an immediate social emergency that, in just a few days, has taken on a national dimension: from the streets of the capital Jakarta, the protests have spread to numerous cities in the province and even to the tourist Bali. Tens of thousands of people took to the square and in various cases the protest has degenerated into clashes and violence, with at least five people dead. For the new executive this is a decisive test bench, with direct implications on internal stability and on his own political credibility.
The roots of the tensions can be identified in a double source of social discontent that has found convergence in the squares of the country. On one hand, popular outrage over the benefits granted to Indonesian parliamentarians, in particular a monthly living allowance of 50 million rupees, equivalent to almost ten times the minimum wage of the capital. On the other hand, deeper social and economic claims about working class living conditions. Protesters have indeed called for a minimum wage increase for 2026, as well as substantial tax reforms that include raising the non-taxable income threshold and eliminating taxes on year-end allowances, settlements and retirement benefits.
The protests began as a workers' mobilization organized by the Coalition of Trade Unions and the Workers' Party, under the slogan HOSTUM which means "Eliminate outsourcing, reject low wages". The movement initially involved about ten thousand workers from the industrial areas of Karawang, Bekasi, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Jakarta, who were later joined by university students and political activists. This convergence between the world of labor and the student movement has amplified the scope of the demonstrations, turning sectoral claims into a broader protest against social inequalities and the country’s economic management, in a context marked by mass layoffs, mainly in the textile industry, and rising cost of goods of necessity.
The situation escalated dramatically after Affan Kurniawan, a 21-year-old motorcyclist taxi driver, was hit and killed by an armored police vehicle during protests on August 29. This tragic episode, captured by cell phones and circulated massively on Indonesian social media, turned what started as a protest against parliamentary privilege into a social uprising involving wider sections of the population. The death of the young worker has fueled calls for justice and punishment from the perpetrators who have expressed themselves in increasingly furious actions, with protesters setting fire to regional parliament buildings in three provinces and targeting the homes of government officials, including the one of Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, looting them.
In the face of the escalating crisis, President Prabowo has had to make the politically significant decision to cancel his participation in the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) summit that began today in China, where a "Victory Day" is also planned to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Asia. The waiver of this event is particularly relevant considering that it is a crucial appointment for the so-called "multipolar front" and for Xi Jinping, who intends to use the occasion to promote the image of stability and self-reliance of both China and its strategic partners. The fact that Indonesian internal turbulence has forced Prabowo to desert an event so symbolically important for the Sino-Russian axis and the multipolar alternative to the Western order constitutes a significant diplomatic embarrassing element and highlights the fragility of social balances in the region.
International analysts have offered articulated interpretations of this crisis, framing it in the broader context of Indonesian socio-economic transformations. Eve Warburton, a researcher at the Australian National University, described the protests as a reflection of the "existing class gap between voters and politicians", noting that "this gap becomes apparent when economic conditions change: recent mass layoffs have left people unsafe as job informality grows." From his singing, Vedi Hadiz, director of the Asia Institute at the University of Melbourne, interpreted the situation as an expression of "genuine popular remorse" in the face of "a deteriorating economy, cuts to public spending, corruption", emphasizing how "nobody believes significant progress is being made to address these problems and the feeling widespread is that Parliament has lost contact with the common people".
Authorities responded with increasingly stricter emergency measures, deploying army and navy personnel to preside over sensitive areas of Jakarta and blocking access to the Sudirman central financial district. Police have used tear gas and water cannons to disperse protesters, while several social media platforms, including TikTok, have voluntarily suspended some features to limit the spread of content that could fuel further unrest. The government has accused not better precise external elements of wanting to sow "anarchy and chaos", to quote President Prabowo's words.
The chronology of events highlights how quickly the situation has degenerated: on August 26, the first protests took place with 312 arrests, of which 205 were minors; on August 28 saw the intensification of demonstrations; on the evening of August 29, Affan Kurniawan was recorded which served as a catalyst for the nationwide extension of the protests on August 30, culminating in fires at regional parliaments; finally, today looting of government officials' homes and the cancellation of the presidential trip to China took place. This time lapse shows how an initially circumcised protest turned in a few days into a national political crisis that tests Ind