On August 25th, thousands of protesters flooded the streets of Jakarta, some carrying pirate flags from the anime One Piece, in what began as outrage over parliamentary pay raises but quickly escalated into what experts describe as the most significant outbreak of civil unrest since Indonesia’s 1998 reformasi. What started as demonstrations against a 50 million rupiah monthly housing allowance for parliamentarians—nearly 10 times Jakarta’s minimum wage—transformed into a nationwide movement after police killed Affan Kurniawan, a motorcycle taxi driver caught in the chaos while simply trying to complete a delivery. The protests have since spread from Banda Aceh in the west to Manokwari in the east, leaving at least six dead, twenty missing, and thousands arrested, while exposing the profound economic inequality and systemic corruption that have pushed Southeast Asia’s largest economy to the brink.
The Spark: Parliamentary Greed Meets Economic Hardship
Tensions had been mounting in Indonesia since President Prabowo Subianto’s government introduced massive spending cuts in February to fund his signature Free Nutritious Meals program. The cuts triggered widespread unemployment and exacerbated an already severe cost of living crisis. Local governments compounded the problem by imposing higher property taxes to address budgetary shortfalls caused by the president’s cuts.
Public anger also simmered over a controversial constitutional amendment allowing serving military officers to hold crucial civilian posts. The amendment raised fears that President Subianto—a former army general and son-in-law of former dictator Suharto—was dragging the nation back to the dark days of military rule.
Key Takeaways
- Protests erupted in Indonesia on August 25th after parliamentarians received a 50 million rupiah monthly housing allowance—nearly 10 times Jakarta’s minimum wage—while citizens faced economic hardship from government spending cuts and rising costs.
- The death of Affan Kurniawan, a motorcycle taxi driver killed by police Mobile Brigade while making a delivery on August 28th, transformed local demonstrations into a nationwide uprising spanning from Banda Aceh to Manokwari.
- The protests represent the most significant civil unrest since Indonesia’s 1998 reformasi, with at least six dead, twenty missing, and thousands arrested, exposing deep economic inequality and systemic corruption.
- Protesters issued the 17+8 demands calling for removal of armed forces from civil law enforcement, freezing parliamentary pay raises, ending police brutality, implementing tax reform, and systemic police reform.
- Experts warn that unless Indonesia addresses entrenched inequality and systemic corruption rather than making superficial changes, the country faces continued instability and potential collapse of public trust in government.
It was against this backdrop of economic hardship and political anxiety that Indonesian parliamentarians began receiving a monthly housing allowance of 50 million rupiah, approximately $3,000. The allowance, introduced the previous year, is almost 10 times the Jakarta minimum wage and about 20 times the monthly minimum wage in poor areas of the country, according to Al Jazeera.
These figures may even understate the reality. According to analysis by the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency, an NGO that carries out oversight of the state’s budget, parliamentarians may now be taking home 230 million rupiah monthly, or around $13,940.
For most Indonesians, the issue wasn’t merely the amount—it was the sheer audacity of politicians rewarding themselves while ordinary citizens struggled to survive. Days before the news broke, a story went viral on Indonesian social media about a four-year-old girl named Raya who died from tuberculosis exacerbated by malnutrition and roundworms. The fact that a child could die of malnutrition while those in government enriched themselves made the nation not just angry, but livid.
Unfortunately, Indonesia’s MPs responded to the growing controversy by pouring gasoline on the smoldering flame of public outrage. Abigail Limuria, co-founder of the digital media platform What’s Up Indonesia, reported that one MP dismissed the vast gulf between their salary and those of ordinary people by saying, “Do not compare us to commoners.” Another MP, Ahmad Sahroni, described those calling for the dissolution of parliament in response to these exorbitant perks as “the dumbest people in the world.”
While most commentators point to the allowance as the main cause of public anger, Abigail believes that it’s the arrogance from public officials more than anything else that drove people to the streets. And they soon hit the streets in the thousands.
Early Protests: Students and Labor Unions Take the Lead
On August 25th, the simmering tensions finally erupted. Thousands took to the streets of Jakarta to protest against what they saw as a government intent on enriching itself at the expense of ordinary people. The protesters had one target in their sights: parliament.
1,250 police officers were deployed to guard the building and were soon engaging in running battles with angry demonstrators. On one side, teargas and water cannons were deployed. On the other, angry citizens lighting fires and hurling rocks.
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Two days later, on August 27th, protesters in West Kalimantan province, led by the Tanjungpura University’s student council, marched to the regional parliament demanding an end to the housing allowance. At first the protests were peaceful, but after police fired teargas into the crowd, the demonstration erupted into violence. Fifteen people were arrested but were released two days later after signing a pledge promising not to repeat their actions.
At this point, most of the protesters were either students or members of labor unions. While the rest of the nation was angry at the Members of Parliament, they hadn’t taken to the streets yet. That would all change on August 28th.
The Escalation: The Death of Affan Kurniawan
Before understanding the events of August 28th, it’s essential to know about Affan Kurniawan. Affan was a motorcycle taxi driver who worked for Gojek, an on-demand multi-service platform and digital payment technology group. He lived with his family of seven in a rented house in the Menteng area of Central Jakarta and was the household’s main breadwinner.
According to information shared by Katadata, a digital media, data, and research company, Affan worked as a security guard before joining Gojek, which he viewed as a more flexible job that could better support his family. He died during the protests on the night of August 28th, and it would be his death, more than anything, that turned the white hot anger of the protesters into a nuclear inferno.
Initially, the day started calmly enough. Protesters—mainly students, political activists, and labor union members—led by labor groups such as the Coalition of Labor Unions and the Labor Party, had gathered in Jakarta with a list of demands for the government. At the top of their list, they wanted an end to outsourcing, a practice in which companies hire workers through third-party agencies on short-term contracts, denying them the protections, wages, and stability that full-time employees receive. They also wanted the minimum wage raised, mass layoffs to end, and labor taxes reformed.
Outside of Jakarta, protests with similar demands occurred in several major cities including Surabaya, Medan, Mojokerto, and Gorontalo.
The Jakarta protesters marched to parliament, but at first things were peaceful. Tensions only escalated when some students tried to break into the building while others threw objects. The police responded with teargas, high-pressure water cannons, and rubber bullets.
But rather than disperse, the crowd only became more enraged. Clashes spread from the parliament complex to a nearby shopping district and onto a major expressway and railway line, disrupting public transport and causing closures of the Palmerah and Tanah Abang train stations. Hundreds of students were arrested, and those who managed to escape withdrew to the Angkola Protestant Christian Church in the Pejompongan.
It was through this chaos that Affan had the misfortune to come while fulfilling a delivery. By the time he reached the area, the police had already called in the Mobile Brigade, the special operations, paramilitary, and tactical unit of the national police force. Driving a 4x4 armored vehicle, one member of the brigade plowed straight into Affan.
What happened next would be captured on thousands of viral videos. Although the vehicle stopped after hitting him, it then sped away as an angry crowd formed, once again running over Affan. According to an eyewitness, the young man had tried to get to his feet, but he never stood a chance once the driver hit the gas.
Affan was rushed to a local hospital where doctors pronounced him dead at 7:50 PM local time.
Another online delivery driver, Moh Umar Amarudin, was also hit by the mobile brigade unit and, according to local news outlet Detik News, was in hospital nursing his injuries. Like Affan, Moh wasn’t a protester. He was at work, fulfilling a delivery.
National Outrage: From Protest to Uprising
The reaction to Affan’s death was immediate. The protesters chased down the tactical vehicle before encircling and trying to storm the Mobile Brigade’s headquarters. That they were unsuccessful only added to their anger. A hashtag that roughly translates as #PoliceThePeoplesKiller quickly topped social media in Indonesia.
One commentator, Virdika Rizky Utama, compared Affan’s death to the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in China. Writing in the Kompas, a national newspaper published in Jakarta, Virdika posited that Affan’s death was not an accident but rather part of a systemic pattern of repression by a government that wields the police as a cudgel against dissent. He urged the people to stand up against government oppression because no one was safe—not even a delivery driver just doing his job.
Affan was buried on August 29th, escorted by hundreds of motorcycle riders. The government, realizing that the funeral could become a flashpoint, sent a representative: the Chief of Jakarta police, Asep Edi Suheri. The presence of a representative of the force that killed Affan at his funeral very nearly led to a riot.
What followed was damage control on steroids. President Prabowo Subianto appeared on television expressing sorrow for the delivery driver’s death. The Defense Minister, Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, did a photo op gifting Affan’s family a house.
But the narrative had gotten away from the politicians, leaving them forever about twenty-four hours behind the curve of public opinion. As stand-up comedian Pandji Pragiwaksono declared: “Indonesians will no longer accept dialogue, we’re now angry. You cannot dialogue with someone who is angry.”
The following days saw massive protests across the entire country, from Banda Aceh in the west to Manokwari in the east. Buildings were torched, including one in which three people reportedly burned to death. In response, the president directed the armed forces and police to take “firm action.” Soon after, the chief of police authorized the use of rubber bullets and non-lethal weapons on “anarchists” entering police bases and dormitories.
Hundreds of university students staged a demonstration outside the national police headquarters, demanding the removal of the chief of police. Made Supriatma, visiting fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, believes that removing the chief of police is one of the easiest things the president can do to calm down the public. “If I were the president, I’d remove the National Police chief from his post. The people need a symbolic gesture from him.”
The fact that the president still hadn’t removed him from office—even after the death of a second protester, Rheza Sendy Pratama, at the hands of the police—seemed to confirm the demonstrators’ worst fears. Many Indonesians view this as emblematic of the deeper rot within the system: a government more concerned with preserving its own power structure than with delivering justice or restoring public trust.
Vigilante Justice: When Citizens Take Matters Into Their Own Hands
With the government seemingly unwilling to deliver justice, angry citizenry began to dispense it themselves.
On August 31st, crowds stormed the home of Finance Minister Sri Mulyani, stealing electronics, jewelry, and even a basketball ring. Soon after, they attacked the home of Ahmad Sahroni—the MP who had called those upset by politicians’ pay raises the “dumbest people in the world.” His home was looted and his sports car destroyed live on TikTok, in what has to be one of the fastest instances of karma in modern history.
Nor were Sahroni and Mulyani the only ones targeted. Celebrities also had their property ransacked, including Surya Utama, who had all twelve of his cats stolen by the rioters.
By September 1st, it was estimated that at least six people had died in the riots, with another twenty going missing. But September 1st also brought something unexpected: a moment of tense calm.
Fearing a police crackdown, the All-Indonesian Student Executive Board (BEM SI), a student organization that had been at the forefront of organizing the protests, withdrew plans for an evening demonstration. Speaking to Kompas, the organization’s leaders indicated that plans for further protests were still on the table but were dependent on the security situation.
As of the time of the original reporting, an eerie sense of calm seemed to have returned to Jakarta, underscored by the fact that members of parliament went back to work on Monday. Many Indonesians were left asking, “What’s next? What did the protests achieve?”
What’s Next: The 17+8 Demands and Indonesia’s Uncertain Future
According to Gavin Butler, a reporter for BBC, it remains unclear where the protests will go from here.
On September 1st, several high-profile social media figures published a list of demands named the 17+8 demands in tribute to Indonesian independence day, August 17th. They were directed at various government institutions and divided into 17 short-term goals to be fulfilled by September 5th, 2025, and eight long-term demands to be fulfilled by August 31st, 2026.
The three most important short-term demands are: first, the removal of the armed forces from civil law enforcement and ensuring no criminalization of protesters; second, freezing the pay raise and perks to the representatives and cancellation of new facilities; and third, an end to police brutality and for the force to adhere to standard operating procedure on demonstrations.
The most important long-term demands are: first, implementing fairer tax reform; second, strengthening the National Commission on Human Rights and independent watchdogs; and third, leadership and systemic reform to the police forces to achieve more professional and humanist policing.
At the time of the original reporting, the government hadn’t responded to the 17+8 demands. However, the president recently announced that Indonesia’s political parties had reached a consensus to reduce lawmakers’ benefits. What isn’t clear is when the perks will be reduced, or whether this decision will be enough to address the deep-rooted class issues in the country.
It is the depth and breadth of these issues that has given the current anti-government rallies such force and set them apart from the many other protests that Indonesians have launched in recent years. In the view of Vedi Hadiz, professor of Asian Studies at the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute, this makes them “among the most significant outbreak of protests since the advent of reformasi”—the reforms that followed dictator Suharto’s downfall in 1998. In other words, they’re a real once-in-a-generation upheaval.
This sentiment is echoed by Dr. Eve Warburton, director of the Indonesia Institute at the Australian National University, who told the BBC, “The current demonstrations are different—the grievances run deeper and are likely more broadly felt. The protests reflect people’s sense of economic insecurity and pent-up resentment toward the greed and excesses of their elected officials.”
In the end, these protests have exposed a profound tension at the heart of Southeast Asia’s largest economy. What happens next will depend on whether the Indonesian government treats this crisis as a passing storm or as the category five hurricane it truly is. If the ruling class now does the hard work of storm-proofing their home—addressing the entrenched inequality and deep-seated anger it has inspired—then maybe they’ll survive the next downpour. But if they simply trim a few salaries here and try to carry on without some serious work on the foundations, they might find that the next gust of public anger is enough to blow the whole rotten edifice away.
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Simon Whistler
Simon Whistler is one of YouTube's most prolific educational creators. WarFronts is his deep dive into military history and conflict analysis.
Frequently Asked Questions
What triggered the Indonesia protests in August 2025?
The protests were triggered by Indonesian parliamentarians receiving a monthly housing allowance of 50 million rupiah (approximately $3,000), which is nearly 10 times Jakarta’s minimum wage. This occurred while citizens faced economic hardship from government spending cuts, unemployment, and rising property taxes. The allowance, combined with MPs’ dismissive comments calling critics ‘commoners’ and ‘the dumbest people in the world,’ sparked widespread outrage.
Who was Affan Kurniawan and why is his death significant?
Affan Kurniawan was a motorcycle taxi driver for Gojek and the main breadwinner for his family of seven. On August 28th, while making a delivery, he was struck and killed by a police Mobile Brigade armored vehicle during protests. The vehicle ran over him twice—once initially and again while speeding away from an angry crowd. His death transformed the protests from a local demonstration into a nationwide uprising, as he symbolized an innocent citizen killed while simply trying to work.
What are the 17+8 demands?
The 17+8 demands, named in tribute to Indonesian independence day (August 17th), consist of 17 short-term goals to be fulfilled by September 5th, 2025, and 8 long-term demands by August 31st, 2026. Key short-term demands include removing armed forces from civil law enforcement, freezing parliamentary pay raises, and ending police brutality. Long-term demands include implementing fairer tax reform, strengthening human rights watchdogs, and achieving systemic police reform for more professional and humanist policing.
How much do Indonesian parliamentarians actually earn?
According to the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency, parliamentarians may be taking home 230 million rupiah monthly (around $13,940) when including the housing allowance and other benefits. The 50 million rupiah monthly housing allowance alone is almost 10 times Jakarta’s minimum wage and about 20 times the monthly minimum wage in poor areas of the country.
Why are these protests considered historically significant?
Experts describe these protests as the most significant outbreak of civil unrest since Indonesia’s 1998 reformasi—the reforms following dictator Suharto’s downfall. Professor Vedi Hadiz called them ‘among the most significant outbreak of protests since the advent of reformasi,’ making them a once-in-a-generation upheaval. Dr. Eve Warburton noted that unlike previous protests, these grievances run deeper and reflect widespread economic insecurity and resentment toward government greed.
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