Indonesia’s Streets in Flames: Protests Met With Brutality

Thick plumes of black smoke rise above the sky of Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. The charred remains of public facilities lie in ruins. Sharp tear gas still lingers in the air, burning eyes and throats.

This is the scene in Jakarta and several other major cities across Indonesia, including Bandung, Yogyakarta, Makassar, Surabaya, and Medan, after nearly a week of civil unrest. It was sparked by public outrage at the recent gestures of lawmakers in the Indonesian parliament.

Public anger over parliament’s rejection of criticism, fuelled by lavish housing perks for lawmakers and parliament member Ahmad Sahroni’s ‘stupid’ slur, has ignited the unrest.

The anger deepened when police were filmed running over a motorbike taxi driver in the capital, killing him.

Peaceful demonstrations soon escalated after police responded with heavy-handed tactics, leaving at least 10 dead and fuelling allegations of human rights abuses. For many, the protests reflect not only policy grievances but a deeper erosion of democratic accountability.

Police bypass due process

For instance, on 29 August 2025, Jakarta police arrested Riau University student Khariq Anhar at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang over a social media post linked to labour protests. 

He was arrested over a social media post, accused of altering a statement by the president of the Confederation of Indonesian Trade Unions, and charged under the country’s Electronic Information and Transactions Law.

On Thursday, 28 August 2025, workers in 38 provinces across Indonesia marched in unison, filling the streets with demands for fairer labour policies and improved welfare.

His lawyer, Rohim Marbun, at the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta), said the arrest violated procedure, as officers failed to present either an assignment letter or a warrant. Anhar, who was returning home to Pekanbaru, reportedly had no idea why he was being detained. 

“Anhar was never summoned as a witness, nor as someone suspected of violating the law,” Marbun told FairPlanet, adding that police are obliged to issue a formal summons before questioning an individual.

“When the arrest took place, the officers wore no uniforms or visible police identification,” Marbun said, arguing that the authorities had ignored proper procedure.

Bruises behind bars

LBH Jakarta is also representing some 300 underage students detained by the Jakarta Police during last week’s demonstrations. 

Under Indonesia’s Juvenile Justice Law, Marbun noted, children in conflict with the law must be accompanied by their parents and granted access to legal assistance. However, LBH Jakarta said it faced lengthy negotiations with the police just to meet the detained underage students.

“When we arrived with worried parents desperate to know their children’s condition, they had already been waiting for hours yet were still denied access,” Marbun said.

LBH Jakarta was present not only to check on the children's condition, but also to ensure that the police were following proper legal procedures.

“When we monitored the situation, we saw some students being moved in and out, several with bruises and injuries. Although we could not confirm the source of those wounds, our priority was to gain access and ensure their well-being. Especially since these were underage children,” he said.

Marbun also criticised the way police handled the protests, noting that many officers wore no clear identification. This, he added, was dangerous as civilians could not tell whether they were dealing with actual police officers.

As law enforcers, Marbun said, police must operate under clear identification. The challenge, he noted, goes beyond individuals and points to deeper structural reforms within the force, including the Police Academy itself.

“There needs to be a solid understanding of human rights, law and due process so that police carry out their duties within limits, without resorting to excessive force,” Marbun told FairPlanet.

Authoritarian legacy

Coercive policing persists in Indonesia because it is deeply tied to authoritarian legacies, weak accountability, and the government’s prioritisation of stability over rights, according to Wirya Adiwena, deputy director of Amnesty International Indonesia.

“The security apparatus, shaped under former president Suharto’s New Order, still relies on intimidation, surveillance, and violence to manage peaceful protests,” said Adiwena.

Despite reforms since 1998, structural impunity allows police to suppress protests, silence activists, and protect elite interests without consequence, he added.

Furthermore, the police have shown themselves to be incredibly resistant to reform or change, according to Ian Wilson, a senior lecturer in politics and security studies at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia.

In particular, for example, the use of tear gas. Despite the tragedy of Kanjuruhan, East Java province, in which 135 were killed as a result of the police’s indiscriminate use of tear gas and ensuing  stampede. The police continue to use it in densely populated and closed areas, Wilson told FairPlanet.

In part, this can be attributed to the broader role of policing in Indonesia and elsewhere as a protector of the status quo, he added.

“In other words, not an impartial institution of law and order, but an agent operating on behalf of government and interests,” Wilson said. 

Meanwhile, Annisa Yudha, research coordinator at the NGO Imparsial, or the Indonesian Human Rights Monitor, said the state continues to treat peaceful protests as a security threat.

“The state should respect, protect, and fulfil the human rights of its citizens, especially when they express their opinion in public,” she told FairPlanet.

Yudha stressed that Indonesia still fails to grasp basic human rights principles, pointing to a shift in silencing dissent towards social media. Young people criticising government policies now face digital threats, she noted.

“Social media accounts are terrorised, doxxed , and critics are smeared as paid buzzers,” Yudha said.

Crackdown over dialogue

Framing protests in Indonesia as a mere “security problem” carries grave human rights risks, Adiwena said. 

Such framing legitimises excessive policing, surveillance, and criminalisation of dissent, treating citizens as threats rather than rights-holders. Adiwena noted that this approach ignores the protests’ political roots – public frustration with corruption, inequality, and lack of accountability – thereby silencing meaningful dialogue.

“Repression cannot resolve crises as it only fuels conflict. The government should protect the protest and listen to the people’s demands for a better Indonesia,” said Adiwena.

Moreover, President Subianto’s recent speech, in which he accused protesters of treason and terrorism while ignoring their core grievances, suggests that a wave of repression and arrests is likely to follow the demonstrations, according to Wilson.

“Repression is very much Subianto’s reflex response to dissent, only tempered by a need to maintain some base of popular support,” Wilson told Fair Planet.

The stability of his current grand coalition is premised on the sharing of the spoils of large white elephant projects , which makes reform, even if the intent was there, politically difficult, Wilson added.