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View all search resultsUnrest lays bare grievances over social mobility, equality
Social mobility, sociologists note, could be restored through better access to education and more job opportunities, but that would require industrialization, investment and a stronger formal sector.
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Protesters are blocked by police with shields during a demonstration on Aug. 25 demanding the dissolution of the House of Representatives on a street in front of the Senayan Legislative Complex in Central Jakarta. (AFP/Yasuyoshi Chiba)
B
ehind the chants and clashes in Indonesia’s recent wave of protests lies a deep frustration held by millions over shrinking opportunities, entrenched inequality and elusive chances to move up in life.
Across Jakarta and beyond, students, workers, civil groups and ride hailing drivers took to the streets to demand relief from economic strain and systemic injustice, turning what began as a protest against lawmakers’ excesses into the largest crisis President Prabowo Subianto has faced since taking office nearly a year ago.
“This wave of protests is the culmination of grievances that have been building not just in recent weeks, but over the past decade,” said Rakhmat Hidayat, a sociologist from the National University of Jakarta (UNJ).
Read also: Economists press Prabowo to fix budget, governance
“Many endured worsening hardship in silence until the sight of lawmakers’ lavish perks, state-covered tax breaks, deputy ministers doubling as commissioners and officials dancing on top of people’s struggling became too bitter to ignore,” he told The Jakarta Post on Sept. 8, adding that the protests reflected growing economic injustice and limited access to opportunity.
Macroeconomic trends underpin this interpretation. Between 2017 and 2024, the gross domestic product expanded by an annual average of 4 percent, while real wages rose just 0.6 percent per year, according to the Institute for Economic and Social Research at University of Indonesia’s School of Economics and Business.
Household spending per capita also grew more slowly in 2018-2024 compared with 2012-2018, after adjusting for a 2-percentage-point difference in average growth.
