Ordinary citizens face mounting economic strain, squeezed between widespread layoffs and an increasingly aggressive tax net. Making matters worse is the conspicuous lack of accountability among political elites. Public funds are disbursed with little transparency, even though taxpayers finance up to 83 percent of the national budget.

This discontent has been brewing for a long time. In August 2025, students and civil society activists led peaceful nationwide demonstrations against sharp spikes in the cost of living, hardships made more glaring by legislative pay raises and lavish official perks. Civic resistance had already erupted in Pati, Central Java, after a sudden 250 percent property tax hike effectively tripled local rates, signaling to many that their representatives were indifferent to everyday struggles.

The August 2025 protests took a tragic turn when an online motorcycle taxi driver, Affan Kurniawan, was struck and killed by a police tactical vehicle. As crowds swelled into the night, chaotic unrest and targeted looting hit the residences of several lawmakers and then-finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati. A subsequent inquiry by the Civil Society Coalition identified two distinct dynamics: while the organized rallies remained peaceful, the ensuing late-night vandalism pointed to deliberate outside provocation rather than grassroots intent.

Despite widespread demands for accountability, President Prabowo Subianto has resisted establishing an independent probe into these events. Civil society organized its push around the "17+8 People’s Demands", a reform road map split into 17 immediate measures due by Sept. 5, 2025, and eight structural goals set for Aug. 31, 2026. The immediate demands focused on rolling back predatory policies, halting military encroachment into civilian roles, dropping charges against protesters, freezing legislative salary increases, securing living wages and stopping mass layoffs.

They also demanded the prosecution of abusive officers and an impartial investigation into the fatal crackdown. The longer-term platform targeted systemic reform: overhauling political parties and legislative oversight, returning troops to barracks, passing an asset forfeiture bill, establishing equitable tax systems and protecting indigenous lands from unchecked resource extraction.

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Nearly a year later, the political establishment has largely sidelined these calls. The government’s lone substantive gesture, a task force for police reform acceleration, has left institutional inertia largely untouched.

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