In late August, demonstrations against housing allowances for national parliamentarians escalated dramatically when a motorcycle delivery driver, Affan Kurniawan, caught up in the protests, was run over by a police tactical vehicle. His death, live-streamed, saw waves of protests in at least 47 Indonesian cities in a convulsion of genuine national rage and frustration.
Parliaments were set on fire in at least 4 cities, police stations were attacked, and the homes of prominent political figures were looted, including Finance Minister Sri Mulyani. Our social media feeds were awash with footage of angry protestors and police brutality. Ibu Ana, a housewife in Jakarta, caught the national mood when she was photographed in the rain in thongs and a pink headscarf, facing down a cordon of heavily armed police officers with the Indonesian flag on a bamboo pole. Who are these protestors? How did they mobilise so fast? What do they want and how will they achieve it?
More content from this blog
- American Far-Right Views Are Welcome in China, by Maya Wang and Mason Wong – 29 May 2025
- China: The Antisemitism Tolerated by the Regime, by Andrea Ferrario – 6 August 2026
- Dmitry Shumsky, Beyond the Nation-State, by Moshe Behar – December 2019
- Lenin Versus Democracy: A Reply to Critics of ‘Goodbye to Lenin and Leninism’, by Dan La Botz – 23 May 2026
- ‘We Were Tricked’. Loubna Mrie on the Syrian Alawites – 14 August 2025