October 20 marked a pivotal moment in Indonesia’s recent history, as the country inaugurated its new president, Prabowo Subianto, a former military general with a notorious human rights record. Prabowo’s presidency signals the start of a potentially concerning era of governance in the country, particularly surrounding the protection of civil liberties and human rights.
In the months leading to the inauguration of the new president, peaceful protesters including youth, climate activists, and community members opposing harmful development projects have been subjected to intimidation and violence. These attacks have reportedly been carried out by state actors, thugs, and vigilantes.
So far, all cases remain unaddressed, and perpetrators continue to enjoy impunity.
Suppression of Peaceful Protests
In August of this year, nationwide protests erupted against the fast-tracked approval of the Regional Election Bill, which aimed to facilitate the nomination of President Jokowi’s youngest son for regional office. The National Human Rights Institution of Indonesia (Komnas HAM) documented that at least 159 protesters had been arbitrarily detained by the police during the protests and left without access to legal aid.
Civil society organizations also documented numerous instances in which excessive force and violence had been used against protesters, most of whom were students. Authorities deployed tear gas and water cannons, leaving many injured without compensation.
Journalists covering the protests were also targeted. According to the Journalist Safety Committee (Komite Keselamatan Jurnalis), at least 11 journalists in Jakarta faced intimidation, death threats, and psychological and physical violence by the authorities.
On September 27, during a peaceful protest commemorating the global climate strike held in Taman Menteng, Jakarta, a group of plainclothes thugs disrupted and assaulted the protesters. Despite a police presence, the authorities chose neither to protect the protesters nor facilitate their right to peaceful assembly. Instead, they urged them to disperse.
The following day, during the National Diaspora Solidarity Meeting, at the Grand Kemang Hotel in South Jakarta, an event focused on discussing critical constitutional issues, a similar attack occurred. A group of thugs raided the closed-door forum, damaging the venue and demanding its shutdown. Similar inaction by the police was also observed.
Continuing Repression Against Vulnerable Communities
State violence extends beyond urban areas and is also directed at Indigenous peoples and communities who are speaking against harmful development projects on their land.
On October 2, the Indigenous people of Poco Leok village in Flores island of East Nusa Tenggara held a demonstration opposing a geothermal power plant project funded by the Germany-based Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau. Their protest was met by violence from the local police, injuring four local Indigenous people and one journalist.
Two days later, in West Sumatra, the police, accompanied by members of PT Permata Hijau Pasaman (PHP), forcibly entered the farmland of the Kapa people to plant palm oil despite PHP’s lack of rights to the Indigenous land. In a peaceful protest, Kapa farmers sat on the land to resist the plantation’s expansion but were met with violence and arrests by the police.
On October 10, in Morowali, Central Sulawesi, five local community leaders of the Ambunu United Community Forum Alliance were subjected to judicial harassment for organizing a road blockade. This blockade was a response to PT Baoshuo Taman Industry Investment Group’s (PT BTIIG) unilateral claim that the community village roads were its property for nickel production operations. Prior to the company’s claim, the roads had long served the community’s access to rice fields, plantations and the community’s cultural sites. WALHI, a local environmental organization, condemned the legal action as a classic example of a Strategic Lawsuit Against Political Participation to silence communities fighting for their rights.
A Vicious Cycle
This series of incidents represents a worrying trend of repression against fundamental freedom of expression and peaceful assembly in Indonesia. FORUM-ASIA has documented at least 55 cases of violence, intimidation, and threats against those exercising their freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly from January 2023 to October 2024, with the majority of incidents perpetrated by the police force. Further, according to the data from the Commission for the Disappeared and the Victims of Violence (KontraS), over 75 public gatherings were forcefully dispersed by joint police-military forces between July 2023 and August 2024.
This vicious cycle of violence has also been highlighted by the Human Rights Committee of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, in which Indonesia is a state party and just had its second review in February 2024. In the concluding observation, the Committee highlighted with regret the significant number of reports of harassment, intimidation, surveillance, and excessive use of force faced by peaceful protesters, members of civil society, students, academic faculty, and trade union leaders and members – incidents that the Indonesian government has failed to address.
What Needs to Be Done
As it stands, the room for public participation in Indonesia has been restricted by with intimidation, violence, and repressive laws that significantly jeopardize the country’s democratic systems.
While having assumed the presidency, Prabowo remains accused of being involved in numerous gross human rights violations in the past including in the disappearance of reform activists and rights abuses in Papua and Timor-Leste. It is therefore doubtful that his administration will be able to resolve those past accusations with justice and fairness. It is also questionable whether his administration will take a different approach in the protection of fundamental freedoms. On the day of Prabowo’s inauguration, the police forcefully dispersed peaceful protesters who were only riding the MRT with posters glued on their clothes that criticized Prabowo’s human rights record.
Indonesia has pledged to protect and promote human rights at the national, regional, and international levels before the Human Rights Council. If the new government is truly committed to this, it must end the vicious cycle of state repression and impunity.
We call on the government to uphold the people’s right to peaceful assembly, association, and expression to the extent where they can exercise such freedoms without fear of reprisals. Laws that criminalize public participation must also be repealed, and victims of state violence must receive justice, redress, and remedy.
The time for action is now: Indonesia’s future as a rights-respecting nation depends on it.