In late August 2025, the streets of Indonesia erupted in protest. Workers, students, women, and the urban poor rose up against growing labor insecurity, corruption, tax hikes, and deepening inequality. At the center of the people’s anger is the glaring injustice of lawmakers receiving housing allowances of up to Rp 50 million ($3,000 or ₱170,000) per month, while the basic pay for ordinary workers is only around Rp 5 million ($300 or ₱17,000) per month. This means lawmakers’ perks are almost ten times the wages of workers in Jakarta and twenty times those in other cities.

The announcement came at a time of high inflation, mass unemployment, and severe cuts to health and education budgets. Viral clips of parliamentarians fumbling to defend these perks went viral, cementing public outrage as contempt for ordinary people.

This anger has deep roots. After Suharto’s fall, reformasi promised democracy and prosperity, but what Indonesians received instead was oligarchic and neoliberal rule that enriched a few while condemning millions to precarity. While the government boasted of a 5.12% GDP growth rate in early August, the reality on the ground was starkly different: auto sales falling, foreign investment shrinking, layoffs rising, and corporate revenues declining. Independent economists even questioned whether the figures were being manipulated. Meanwhile, the Prabowo government pushed through Rp 306.7 trillion in austerity cuts to infrastructure, education, and health programs—policies that have only deepened hardship.

And obviously, there is a glaring disconnect between the neoliberal government agenda led by Prabowo and the people’s interest.

The protests today are distinguished by their broad social base. Students and activists march alongside the urban poor and gig economy workers such as online motorcycle taxi drivers for Gojek and Grab. Once celebrated as symbols of Indonesia’s digital modernity, these workers now represent the exploited face of neoliberal growth: incomes have collapsed, incentives slashed, and rights denied. Their participation underscores a rare cross-class alliance. The brutal police killing of Affan Kurniawan, a young delivery driver, has given the movement both a martyr and a moral core.

Mobilization in 2025 reflects the new digital age. Unlike the 1998 uprising that toppled Suharto, which spread through SMS networks, today’s protests thrive on memes, livestreams, TikTok clips, and viral images. Symbols such as the One Piece “Straw Hat Pirates” flag have become popular emblems of resistance, while footage of Kurniawan’s funeral spread widely online, transforming grief into collective outrage. These protests are decentralized, leaderless, and networked, erupting simultaneously across Indonesia’s urban centers without a single command center.

The government’s reaction has been a mix of contrition and coercion. President Prabowo Subianto pledged compensation for Kurniawan’s family and the Speaker of Parliament issued an apology. At the same time, nearly 1,000 protesters have been detained and not less than 10 people have already died, with activists and student leaders deliberately targeted. Authorities denounced the protests as “anarchy” and hinted at “foreign interests” being behind the unrest—a tired script to delegitimize popular dissent.

This duality reveals the regime’s unease. Prabowo presides over a vast coalition functioning as a political cartel, rubber-stamping laws that expand military authority and shield oligarchic interests. What is being challenged now is not simply one policy but the entire legitimacy of this insulated elite consensus. Reformasi’s promises have been betrayed: elections are held, but without real alternatives; civil society is tolerated, but marginalized; economic growth is sustained, but only through cheap, disposable labor.

Prabowo Subianto himself embodies this betrayal. As Suharto’s son-in-law and a former general, he was directly implicated in grave human rights abuses in East Timor and West Papua, where he commanded campaigns of suppression and violence. Today, as president, he continues that legacy: enriching elites, empowering the military, and repressing dissent.

This resonates deeply with us in the Philippines. Like Indonesia, we face massive corruption and elite plunder of public funds—from bloated flood control projects, secret “confidential and intelligence funds,” to budget insertions that serve legislators’ rent-seeking interests. Transparency and accountability are simply ignored.

While our people suffer poverty, unemployment, and underfunded health and education services, public officials enrich themselves.

The Indonesian workers and masses are an inspiration not only for us in the Philippines but for all peoples fighting inequality, corruption, and repression.

We affirm our solidarity with the Indonesian people in their demands for:

• Higher wages and better labor conditions;

• Justice for victims of police and military repression.

We condemn in the strongest terms the brutality of the Indonesian government and its law enforcement agencies. The struggle of Indonesians is also our struggle—for dignity, justice, and a future free from exploitation and repression.

Free all Indonesian detained protesters!

September 2, 2025

Signed,

Alyansa ng mga Mamamayan para sa Karapatang Pantao (AMKP)

Lanao Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (LAHRA)

Alliance of Tri-People for the Advancement of Human Rights (ALTAHR)

Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA)

Partido Manggagawa (PM)

Ranaw Disasters Response and Rehabilitation Assistance Center (RDRRAC)

Alyansa sa mga Kabus sa Lungsod ug Syudad (Urban Poor Federation)

Sumpay Mindanao

Interfaith Movement for Peace (IMovePeace)

Focus on the Global South

Kilusang Maralita sa Kanayunan (Rural Poor Movement/KILOS KA)

LABAN Kababaihan! (Women Fight!)

Mindanao Tri-People Women Resource Center (MTWRC)

In Defense of Human Rights and Dignity Movement (IDEFEND)