A year after Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto won the election, the families of Indonesians arrested in recent protests are expressing dissatisfaction with his leadership.
Prabowo Subianto and Gibran Rakabuming Raka during their inauguration as president and vice president of the Republic of Indonesia, October 20, 2024. Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto is marking his first year in power after a series of arrests of protesters in recent months.
Several activists believe Indonesia is returning to an authoritarian era, with Indonesian police reporting 959 people have been detained since August.Once known for his military past, Prabowo, who is more commonly referred to by his first name, reinvented himself as a cuddly grandfather figure, dancing on social media and cuddling cats to charm younger voters.Now the Indonesian president is marking one year in office. The milestone comes as hundreds of protesters, activists and students remain behind bars following country-wide protests in August.As a former military commander, the Indonesian president was accused of involvement in the kidnapping and torture of pro-democracy activists in the late 1990s, and of alleged human rights abuses in East Timor and Papua.In August, crowds initially took to the streets over parliamentary perks and entitlements, after reports emerged that MPs were receiving a housing allowance of 50 million rupiah per month to stay in the capital.rideshare driver Affan KurniawanAt least 10 people were killed across the country, including students allegedly involved in clashes with police.Indonesian authorities have launched a crackdown ever since. Police Criminal Investigation Agency chief commissioner general Syahardiantono said officers have charged 959 people with various offences.While some of those arrested have been released, though they remain suspects, civil society organisations said around 600 protesters are still being held across the country.One of them is Ahmad Faiz Yusuf, known as Faiz, a student in East Java and a literacy activist. In addition to his passion for reading and writing, Faiz is known as a literacy activist within his local community.His mother, Imro’atin, still remembers when six burly men, later identifying themselves as local police, entered her home looking for Faiz on September 21. “At first, they asked to see my son’s phone … then they went into his room and tore it apart. I don’t know what they were looking for,” she told the ABC. “I didn’t even get a chance to read the search warrant. The way they searched — like robbers — left me in shock.”That same day, Faiz was taken to the station for questioning as a witness and he has not returned home since.Police initially charged him with incitement, but later switched to a charge under the Information and Electronic Transaction Law for allegedly spreading false information. Kediri City Police criminal investigation chief, Commissioner Cipto Dwi Laksono, said Faiz was named a suspect based on evidence and expert opinion. But Ms Imro’atin believes her son is innocent. She says that while his friends, Sam Umar and Bima, led the protest in Kediri, “Faiz didn’t join the protest”.’I feel like my child is being oppressed’ Delpedro Marhaen is a young activist and executive director of the Lokataru Foundation, a legal and human rights NGO, who has been held by police in Jakarta for a month.”DMR is suspected of inciting criminal acts and/or spreading electronic information he knew to be false, causing unrest and anxiety in the community, and/or recruiting and exploiting minors,” said Jakarta Police spokesperson Commissioner Ade Ary Syam Indradi.”It’s unimaginable ,” Delpedro’s mother, Magda Antista Timprihatini, said, half-sobbing.”He was only defending the people with what he did.”Delpedro’s brother, Delpiero Hegelian Rismansyah, said that at first glance this “might only be about Delpedro” or other activists who were arrested, but “it’s more than that”.”We’re worried, not just about Delpedro, but also about the future of other young activist friends, the future of students, who are directly affected by government policies.” He said beyond the desire for his brother to be released, “I hope for justice that is as clear as daylight”.Many are drawing parallels between the recent arrests and Indonesia’s New Order era under former president Suharto, who stepped down following the 1998 student-led protests. Prabowo Subianto is Suharto’s former son-in-law and was a military commander during the 1998 protests.Andrie Yunus is the external affairs coordinator at KontraS, a leading Indonesian human rights organisation focused on investigating enforced disappearances and acts of violence.”Even though I wasn’t born during the New Order era or when KontraS was first established in March 1998, … through stories and conversations with senior activists, and re-reading documents published in 1998-1999, it feels like we’re going back to the New Order era,” he said. “Human rights violations continue to happen and repeat, and what makes it feel like we’re back in that dark tunnel is that KontraS is still assisting victims of the 1998 riots … cases of forced disappearances that remain unresolved.Maria Sumarsih says she continues to hold on to hope that human rights violations in Indonesia will one day be resolved.”I tell young people that 1998 is the same as the current situation; back then, many 1998 children were also arrested,” she said. “Now many young people who criticise government policies are being silenced, disappeared, even put in detention at regional police stations.”Maria Sumarsih is a key figure in the Kamisan, a weekly human-rights protest carried out in front of the National Palace in Jakarta.At the protest, young students were voicing their frustrations with the Prabowo government. Exit polls showed a large majority of Generation Z voted for Prabowo and his running mate, former president Joko Widodo’s son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka. Rey, a student at Universitas Indonesia, said he felt many of his friends were angry at the government, especially in the wake of protests in August.”Because of many things, military law revisions, parliamentary salary increases, these have become examples that the government doesn’t care about its people, just themselves.”Indonesian NGO CELIOS, Centre of Economic and Law Studies, said that young people are disappointed with the Prabowo administration, after his campaign promise to deliver 19 million jobs hasn’t materialised.”So the young generations who voted for Prabowo have become dissatisfied with the current economic policies,” CELIOS executive director Bhima Yudhistira Adhinegara said. “Finding a job is very difficult right now; many fresh graduates are turning to the gig economy because they can’t find employment in the formal sector.”At a separate protest in Jakarta, mothers and young women came to the headquarters of the National Nutrition Agency to voice their anger over Prabowo’s free school meals program.The signature policy of the president, which initially aimed to address childhood stunting by providing free school lunches to Indonesian kids, has received considerable criticism in recent months.The key election commitment of President Prabowo Subianto is facing mounting backlash over its poor oversight, questionable food sourcing and unhygienic kitchens.Prabowo has defended the program, saying that the poisoning cases accounted for only 0.00017 per cent of total beneficiaries, while ordering stricter food safety measures to be put in place. Ririn Sefsani from Mother’s Voice Indonesia, who was protesting at the BGN headquarters, said she was disgusted by Prabowo’s remarks. Ririn Sefsani criticised Mr Prabowo’s response to the number of children affected by food poisoning linked to the free meals program.”When the president said that figure, it confirmed and convinced me that the president not only lacks a human rights perspective but doesn’t have empathy towards the people,” she said. With Prabowo facing mounting scrutiny after one year in office, Ms Imro’atin and Ms Prihatini, like hundreds of families whose children remain in police custody, said there was one demand the president can act on: release their children. “The government says it wants a golden generation, but on the other hand, children are being criminalised like this,” Ms Imro’atin said, adding that detained students risk dropping out of school.Faiz’s mother urged the president to release her son, highlighting the fate of students who remain in police custody.
Gibran Rakabuming Raka Indonesian President Indonesia One Year Prabowo Military General Human Rights Violations Protest Crackdown Delpedro Marhaen Ahmad Faiz Protester Free Meal Program Free Nutritious Program Maria Catarina Sumarsih Kamisan Protests Indonesian Government Kontras
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