What is happening in Indonesia?

Indonesia, with a population of more than 280 million people, of which 85% is Muslim, is ranked the highest at the Economist Democracy Index for any Muslim-majority country in the world. But Indonesia is considered to be a “flawed democracy”, with limits on freedom of expression, high levels of corruption, and discrimination towards minorities. At the same time, Indonesia's GDP growth during recent years has positioned it highly among other nations, ranking as the second-highest among G20 countries with a 5% growth in 2025, following only China. The strong performance has been driven by robust household consumption, improved private and public investment, and strong export numbers of palm oil products, base metals, and pharmaceuticals. Moreover, the country is experiencing strong GDP growth with digitalization and value-added processing of its natural resources, particularly nickel.

Indonesia is projected to become the world's fourth-largest economy by around 2045, based on both nominal GDP and Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) metrics, and today, it ranks just as the sixteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. With the economic growth of the past years, the country is also experiencing high inequality and entrenched corruption among elites. Currently, the president of Indonesia is

Prabowo Subianto Djojohadikusumo, a populist right-wing politician, who is also a businessman and military officer. In 1998, he was discharged from the military and subsequently banned from entering the United States for allegedly committing human rights abuses.

The popular anger started when last year 580 parliamentarians decided that they will receive a new monthly housing allowance of 50 million rupiah ($3,000) in addition to their salaries. The allowance is almost 10 times the Jakarta minimum wage and about 20 times the monthly minimum. In addition to that, the government has cut the budget on social programs for the poor, and has diminished the role of civilians within the leadership of the armed forces, and increased the role of the military in the economic and political spheres, thus eroding meritocracy and legal certainty.

In that context, many violent protests have erupted in the country in the last six months. Protesters claim taxes and inflation are making life impossible for many. As a consequence, protesters have been demanding that the minimum wage be raised in accordance with inflation rates.

Finally, violence escalated this week when a video on social media showing the death of the motorcycle taxi driver shocked the nation and spurred more violence against security forces. Affan Kurniawan, 21, was reportedly completing a food delivery service order when an armoured police vehicle ran into him outside Indonesia’s House of Representatives as riot police dispersed crowds.

As a result, protesters burned many police cars and government buildings to protest security forces’ brutality. According to Indonesia’s disaster management agency, on Saturday three people died in a fire at a regional legislature building in Makassar, about 1,600km (994 miles) east of Jakarta. In the meantime, the president Prabowo has cancelled an official visit to China and Tik Tok was forced to block all live broadcasts.