As a result, the police have continued to violate due process of law at will: chasing students into university buildings, firing tear gas on campuses and arresting individuals for merely expressing their opinions, accusing them of inciting protesters to commit violent and destructive acts. 

Laras Faizati, 26, who works at the ASEAN Interparliamentary Assembly, was arrested for posting her frustration toward the police on her social media account. Anyone can see that her statement, saying “burn down the building”, was a spontaneous emotional outburst, not a literal call to violence, and reflects the deep public anger many Indonesians feel toward police brutality.

According to the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), more than 3,000 protesters have been arrested during the recent wave of demonstrations, with at least 10 people killed in the process. This is repression in its most blatant form.

What makes this moment particularly dangerous is not just the violence itself, but the revisionist historical logic behind it. If Prabowo truly believes Soeharto fell not because of the moral force of the Reform movement, but because the regime hesitated to fully unleash its security forces, then he is not simply repeating history. He is rewriting it, with deadly precision.

To showcase his resolve, Prabowo made a calculated public gesture. He initially canceled his attendance at China’s Victory Day parade, citing domestic instability. But just days later, on Sept. 3, 2025, he flew to Beijing to stand beside Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un at the 80th-anniversary military parade. 

That authoritarian theater abroad mirrors the repression at home. The crackdown continued in Jakarta, Bandung and across the country, yet Prabowo chose spectacle over statesmanship, and international optics over domestic accountability. Civil society’s silence made this possible.