Indonesia in chaos: Five Indonesians give views on why and how to fix it

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Demonstrations have gripped Indonesia since late August when anger at a faltering economy erupted into full-blown violence following reports that politicians received a $3,000 housing allowance on top of their salaries – a perk equal to between 10 and 20 times Indonesia’s monthly minimum wage.

It was not the first time that Indonesians have taken to the streets this year.

Death of a food delivery driver

Anger peaked in late August when a motorcycle delivery driver, 21-year-old Affan Kurniawan, was run over and killed by a police vehicle during protests in the capital Jakarta.

Kurniawan was reportedly not taking part in demonstrations, but trying to fulfil a food delivery order at the time of his death.

Several police officers are now being investigated over his death, and one has already been fired from his position.

Indonesia’s ubiquitous food delivery drivers are widely seen as a symbol of Indonesia’s lack of good employment opportunities and an ever-present reminder of the country’s poorly paid “gig-economy”, where workers are often economically exploited and socially marginalised.

Imran, a food delivery driver from Langkat in North Sumatra, told Al Jazeera that “inequality” was the root cause of the mass protests that have shaken the country.

“Including economic inequality, educational inequality, health inequality and unequal public services,” Imran told Al Jazeera.

Indonesia protest blaze kills 3 as anger erupts over driver's death

Despite the economic hardships facing everyday people, the country’s House of Representatives still went ahead and asked for a housing allowance of 50 million Indonesian rupiah per month, equal to some $3,000, Imran said.

“They are not concerned about our fate. They should be present to resolve the problems facing the community, not fan the flames. These protests arose from the community’s poor economic conditions,” Imran said.

“We hope the government will quickly find a solution to address these issues so that people will no longer take to the streets to demand their rights,” he said.

“We are part of a community that longs for peace. If our rights are fulfilled, there will be no more masses taking to the streets. We want clean and transparent bureaucracy,” he added.

Local news outlet Jakarta Globe reported on Friday that the housing allowance has been scrapped as a result of the demonstrations, and that the House of Representatives had also decided on Thursday against raising the salaries of lawmakers and imposed a ban on their “non-essential overseas trips”.

Economic woes

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, who has been in power since October, promised on taking office to raise economic growth to 8 percent within the next five years.

But, the president has struggled to balance the books, in part due to his free lunch programme for millions of schoolchildren, which is costing the government a reported $10bn per year.

To make up for the budget shortfall, blamed in part on the free food initiative, Prabowo’s government slashed state expenditures by $18bn, with the deepest cuts felt in education, public works and healthcare.

A prominent Indonesian political analyst* told Al Jazeera that many people feel “disgusted” by the cuts to government spending, and now that Prabowo has been in power for a year, they have a good idea of “how he actually governs”, compared with promises made during his election campaign.

“Prabowo promoted himself as an economic reformer, but the emperor has no clothes,” the analyst said.

epa12341863 A handout photo made available by the Indonesian Presidential Palace shows Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto (L) speaking about recent violent protests during a press conference at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta, Indonesia, 31 August 2025 (issued 01 September 2025). Government buildings and police vehicles were set on fire in days of violence protests across the country following the death of a motorbike hailing driver on an earlier protest against the housing allowance for member of the parliament. EPA/LAILY RACHEV / HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

Not all is lost yet, however, for the president.

“He still has an opportunity to defuse this. The government still has a lot of room to manoeuvre to repair the damage and make concessions,” the analyst said.

“A lot of it has to do with damage control as the protests are targeted against the elite and the establishment in general,” he said, adding the president could build goodwill with the public by holding people to account for corruption and excessive force in dealing with protesters.

“He should fire a couple of people and arrest a few people and put them on trial. That would be the best way to save his presidency,” the analyst said.

Right to protest

Following the death of delivery driver Kurniawan, anger surged, and protesters ransacked the homes of parliamentarians and Indonesia’s Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati.

Demonstrators were also blamed for setting fire to a regional government national assembly building in Makassar in Sulawesi, where three people were reported killed.

As police deployed water cannon and tear gas to disperse crowds in cities across the country, including on university campuses, Prabowo told the country’s security forces to get tough on protests that showed signs of “treason and terrorism”.

Afifah, a women’s rights activist based in Jakarta, said there have been demonstrations since the start of the year, and not just in the past few weeks, due to “a real frustration about economic issues in Indonesia”.

People were also “worried about the military expanding its authority over civilians, access to the job market and widespread poverty,” she said.

In the face of the demonstrations, authorities used tear gas, which suppressed the people’s “right to protest” peacefully in Indonesia, Afifah said.

Riot police react as they clash with demonstrators during a protest against, what the demonstrators say, are exorbitant allowances for Indonesian parliament members, outside Indonesian parliament buildings in Jakarta, Indonesia, August 25, 2025.

“The police should be pulled back and told that they do not have the right to break up demonstrations,” she told Al Jazeera.

“We need widespread reform in Indonesia, and the system needs to change. There are a number of problems: the economy, the environment and democracy in this country. There needs to be total reform, and it needs to involve all parts of society, including women.”

Cost of living crisis

Indonesia is dealing with a cost-of-living crisis and inflation continues to rise, with the Bank of Indonesia recording a 2.31 percent increase in August 2025 year-on-year.

Although the government said that gross domestic product (GDP) grew 5.12 percent in the second quarter of this year, many Indonesians say those figures do not reflect the economic situation on the ground, particularly in rural areas.

Rahmawati, a housewife living in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, said public anger had “finally exploded …because we feel like no one cares about us”.

“Politicians shouldn’t care about the public only when they need us, like when there are elections. Then they come and see us, making all these sweet promises about how they will work on our behalf. When they get elected, they forget about us,” Rahmawati told Al Jazeera.

“What we want is for them to care about us and our needs,” she said.

“Every year, the price of basic foodstuffs rises and never goes back down again. Groceries are becoming more and more difficult to afford,” she added.

Military matters

The current protests are part of a wave of demonstrations that started earlier in the year, including over the passage of a controversial law allowing members of the military to hold expanded government roles.

Since his election, former special forces general Prabowo, who was once a son-in-law of the country’s feared dictator Soeharto, has reportedly established dozens of new military battalions, with plans to create hundreds more over the next five years.

Indonesia has a long history of repression by the armed forces, including in Aceh Province, which fought for independence from Indonesia for more than 30 years, leaving thousands of Acehnese dead before it became a semi-autonomous region in 2005.

Muhammad, a social worker in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh, said demonstrations had taken place there too, though the Acehnese do not “typically respond” to Indonesian “national issues”.

“But, in the interests of solidarity, there was a demonstration in front of the regional assembly in Banda Aceh. There was no ban on the protest by the local government and no riots or anarchy,” Muhammad said.

“Our protest was a way of airing our views with a local twist on a national issue,” he said, adding that a reported plan by the central government to build five new military battalions in Aceh was a focus of the protests.

“We reject this, and it is very sensitive,” he added.

“We already had 35 years of conflict with the military.”

*Due to the sensitivity of the subject matter at a time of social unrest in Indonesia, interviewees asked that their names not be used or not be used in full.

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