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View all search resultsThe state's new muscle
When the state embraces street thugs as political muscle, the violence that follows isn't an accident - it is government policy.
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Police officers and protesters face each other on Aug. 27 during a demonstration urging lawmakers to immediately pass an asset forfeiture law for corrupt officials outside the Senayan Legislative complex in Jakarta. (AFP/Azwar Ipank)
O
n Aug. 27, while crowds from the House of Representatives demonstration were dispersing, a 59-year-old mirror maker named Bambang Setiawan was killed in his own neighborhood of Pejompongan, Central Jakarta. He was not a protester.
Widely circulated videos showed men in civilian clothing attacking residents after the protest ended. A madrassa student, 18-year-old Faturrohman, was severely tortured. Amnesty International Indonesia called for an investigation into the involvement of mass organizations (ormas), noting that perpetrators were identifiable from the footage yet remained at large days later.
Curiously, the government framed the presence of ormas, reportedly GRIB Jaya, at the demonstration as a security contribution - and that is a problem. When the state deploys quasi-civilian muscle, it forfeits the moral authority to blame the crowd when things turn violent.
GRIB Jaya lawyer Wilson Colling confirmed that group leader Rozario “Hercules” de Marshall took to the streets with his members amid unrest following the Aug. 27 protest but denied the group’s alleged link to the act of violence that claimed a life.
The men who killed Bambang did not emerge from nowhere; they operate in an environment created and sustained by deliberate political choices. We must be able to recognize what those choices look like in practice.
Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya received Hercules at his office in March 2026 - a post-Ramadan visit described in warm terms as a reunion with "an old friend of 15 years". Teddy received Hercules again on June 19, just after midnight, posting about the meeting on his office’s Instagram account. GRIB was founded in 2011 as a mass organization linked to Gerindra, the party of President Prabowo Subianto. Tempo reported in 2025 that the group had entered its "golden age" following Prabowo's inauguration.
On Aug. 7, Hashim Djojohadikusumo, the President's brother, inaugurated 20 new mass organizations under the Forum Masyarakat Indonesia Emas (FORMAS) umbrella, bringing its total membership to 103 groups. "Perisai Prabowo" (Prabowo's Shield) is one whose name requires no interpretation.
