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View all search resultsAnalysis: Protesters now have a common “reform agenda”
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Fed up: Civil society activists and university students hold a banner that reads “Police reform“ (left) and “People's killer“ during a protest on Nov. 28, 2024, in front of the Central Java Police station in Semarang. (Antara/Aji Styawan)
T
his month, protests demanding political and economic change continue, although smaller and more orderly. A clearer picture of demands that the government can respond to has been compiled into the “17+8 People’s Demands”.
Military intervention in the protests may have been a factor in lowering the political temperature that boiled at the end of August, when many protests in Jakarta and other cities turned violent.
Some analysts attribute this relative calm to the absence of agents provocateurs encouraging crowds to turn violent, with a hidden political agenda.
The House of Representatives in Jakarta was momentarily occupied, legislative buildings in several cities were razed, and the homes of four House members and former finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati were looted by mobs.
President Prabowo Subianto said the protests bordered on treason and terrorism but did not elaborate or provide evidence.
A growing consensus has emerged among students, labor unions, women’s and other groups, who took to the streets last month to adopt the “17+8 People’s Demands”.
Even Prabowo, some cabinet members, and the House are responding to, and thus legitimizing, the demands.
