The 28 August 2025 Tragedy Reveals the "Iceberg"

The tragic end of a series of demonstrations on 28 August 2025 will be remembered by those who were there and fell victim to the state apparatus' violent and reckless acts – and hopefully, also by the often forgetful Indonesian public too. This demonstrates only the tip of an iceberg which represents the culture of a state apparatus organization: arrogance, feudalism, violence, and corruption. It is only a open secret (rahasia umum) that the Polri (Indonesian National Police) embodies all these reprehensible traits – every ordinary Indonesian who is not a member of the political or military class knows this well from experience.

© Sagala 2025

Tragically, the victim of the violent repression of the 28 August 2025 demonstration was not a demonstrator. He was an ojol (online motorcycle-taxi) driver. His life exemplifies the lives of most of Indonesian, 70 % of whom belong to the low-income class who live on less than 3.5 million rupiah per month. He is the backbone of his family of seven who share one small roof, from whom only he can work.

But, can one speak generally of class structure in Indonesia? Are the upper-class people generally even aware of their status as belonging to upper-class? The core cause of the demonstration was that politicians are demonstrably unaware of this. Many of them publicly display in front of the press a lot of rough, shameless and surprising insensitive remarks about their privileged conditions. It is no wonder that the parlement members could still ask for a raise in their allowance: they think they deserve a raise for their self-perceived miserable living condition, despite earning over hundreds of millions of rupiah income they get per month – as admitted by the singer-turned MP, Krisdayanti, in a talk show.

A press social media post summarized the insensitivity of members of the Indonesian political class discussed as follows. One MP complained they lived so far from the office and had to endure traffic jam, just like the ordinary people they represent. That MP seemed to accept traffic jams as an inevitable part of life, forgetting that it is their job to consider ways to reduce congestion and improve urban planning. Another tried to calculate how much their salary as an MP falls short of the cost of living in Jakarta. Are they aware of the reality faced by the majority of Indonesians, who live far from their place of work, or are even unemployed?

One of the triggers for the demonstrations was the high number of perceived unemployment. On that issue, an MP delivered an astonishing remark: "If you have creativity, be an entrepreneur instead of complaining about not having a job—create work for your friends. If you can cook, start a culinary business; if you can sew, build a fashion business. If you can edit videos, become an editor. If we still rely on the government to provide jobs, it means we’re still stuck in the colonial era." This kind of paternalistic and condescending comment reflects various aspects. Firstly, it revealed the complete, neoliberal narrative which is embedded in Indonesia's economic paradigm, despite the fact that the country was founded on socialism by its now forgotten intellectual founding fathers. This narrative suggests that individuals are responsible for themselves and that the government should play a minimal role.  Secondly, the MP demonstrated a complete ignorance of the reality on the ground: not everyone can be an entrepreneur. Any social scientists or even economists knows that the majority of the people will work. The neoliberal attitude indeed holds society members responsible for saving themselves, while the political class deals with big corporations, which in Indonesia manifest as ugly, extractive and dirty sectors. These sectors fund their political organizations. Thirdly, the comment demonstrates a lack of understanding of the colonial era. Even in the most capitalistic countries, the government still has the task of stimulating capitalist actors, entrepreneurs and the middle classes with various smart measures. For low-income members of society, the government has the task of protecting them. Does the Indonesian government protect them? Does it also do his job for the middle classes? Colonialism is not an era, as stated, but a set of practices propagated structurally by the upper class of a society, which treats the rest of the population, nature and land as mere instruments for profit-making purposes. Understood in this way, has colonialism already ended in Indonesia? Perhaps the MP was wrongly right when she said, 'we are still stuck in the colonial era.'

The death of the ojol driver shall only remind us the true social reality for the majority of Indonesian people and how the state immiserates them even more. People trampled by the unjust economic structure, which turn them into low-wage laborers. The absence of state social security, mandated by the Indonesian constitution, leaves people socially vulnerable. This makes ojol drivers the backbone of their extended families, paying for all kinds of expenses that would be covered by the state in other welfare states. People are disrespected by the state apparatus – Affan Kurniawan was run over by a police car that was trying to forcefully end a demonstration against MPs' pay rises, of which he was not even a part. Affan was in his early twenties and a member of the "Golden Indonesia" generation, a dream repeatedly trampled by the very political class that ideated it and turned it into a national nightmare. May he rest in peace and be remembered.

Author:

Geraldus Martimbang is a doctoral researcher at the Technical University of Munich, where he researches the social, economic, and spatial history of colonial tea plantations in Priangan, West Java.