Indonesia Faces Worst Violence in Decades as Protests Against Lawmaker Benefits Escalate, President Prabowo Orders Tough Action
In response to escalating anti-government protests, Indonesian political leaders have agreed to scale back lawmakers’ benefits, President Prabowo Subianto announced Sunday. The demonstrations, which began Monday over perceived excessive pay and housing allowances for parliamentarians, have resulted in at least five deaths in what is the country’s worst violence in decades.
Initially peaceful protests took a turn towards rioting on Friday following the death of a motorcycle rideshare driver during police action at a protest site. Subsequent unrest saw homes and state buildings ransacked or set ablaze, causing investor confidence to plummet and triggering significant stock and currency market selloffs.
Overnight, looters broke into the residence of Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati outside Jakarta, although she was not present at the time. It is unclear if she regularly uses the property.
Further protests are scheduled for Monday, with student groups declining to cancel them following Prabowo’s announcement. The president addressed the media at a press conference on Sunday, flanked by political party leaders, and pledged firm action against rioters and looters. He also accused some of the unrest of bearing signs of terrorism and treason.
In response to the protests, parliamentary leaders have agreed to revoke several policies, including the size of allowances for members of parliament and a moratorium on overseas work trips. Prabowo urged the police and military to take decisive action against the destruction of public facilities, looting at private homes, and economic disruption.
The protests mark the most significant challenge yet to Prabowo’s government, which has faced minimal political opposition since taking office a year ago. In response to the unrest, the president canceled a planned trip to China and convened an emergency meeting with cabinet members on Sunday at the Presidential Palace.
As tensions simmered in some areas, ministers and political leaders arriving at the palace used civilian number plates instead of official ones, presumably as a security measure. The military was deployed to protect the palace, while key ministers’ homes and government installations were also guarded by the military on Sunday.
It remains unclear who is orchestrating the rioting and looting that followed the protests, which were initially organized by student associations. Muzammil Ihsan, head of the All Indonesian Students’ Executives Body, stated that cutting lawmakers’ perks was insufficient and further demonstrations are being considered.
Tegar Afriansyah, chairman of a smaller student group, has criticized Prabowo’s instructions to police and military as repressive and intimidating. He also emphasized that the root cause of the problem is political oligarchy and an unequal economic structure.
Amnesty International’s Indonesia chapter issued a statement denouncing Prabowo’s use of terms like treason and terrorism as excessive. TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, temporarily suspended its live feature in Indonesia due to the unrest.
The death toll rose to five on Sunday, according to local disaster management agencies in Makassar, South Sulawesi province. An online motorcycle taxi driver was beaten to death by a mob who believed he was an intelligence agent. Three others were killed in an arson attack on the local parliament building on Friday.