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Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - A woman strikes a police officer with a bamboo stick tied to an Indonesian flag as police push back students during a protest outside the parliament building against lawmakers’ demands for higher allowances in Jakarta on August 28, 2025. — AFP pic
- Anger at death of motorcycle rider hit by police vehicle
- President orders probe, calls for calm after driver’s death
- Rupiah, stock index fall amid unrest in Jakarta
- Jakarta Legal Aid demands release of 600 arrested protesters
- Protests affect schools and businesses
JAKARTA, Aug 30 — Hundreds of Indonesians protested at sites across Jakarta on Friday over the death of a civilian hit by a police vehicle, triggering calls for police reform in the first major test for President Prabowo Subianto’s nearly year-old government.
The civilian, a motorcycle ride-sharing driver, was hit at the site of violent clashes on Thursday near parliament as police sought to disperse demonstrators protesting about issues including lawmakers’ pay and education funding.
The protests on Friday afternoon prompted a number of schools in the capital to allow students to leave early and banks and businesses to ask employees to work from home. The military has been deployed in some areas, visuals broadcast by local media showed.
Drivers, students in colourful jackets and Indonesians from other walks of life descended on the country’s parliament and police headquarters in Jakarta to stage protests on Friday, throwing rocks at the gates and chanting “Killer! Killer!”
Wearing their signature green jackets, drivers also staged protests in other cities, including Bandung and Surabaya on Java island and Gorontalo on Sulawesi.
After darkness fell, heavy rain in Jakarta dispersed some students and drivers from the police headquarters, though a few remained keeping alight a fire built from tyres and bamboo while singing patriotic songs.
Police fired tear gas at protesters trying to enter the headquarters.
Protesters torched a house belonging to Indonesia’s People’s Consultative Assembly legislative wing in Bandung, a city about 150 km (90 miles) southeast of the capital, state news agency Antara reported. Local media also reported a police post was set on fire in Makassar city, on Sulawesi.
Motorcycle driver Pendi Nasir, 43, who was among the protesters in Jakarta, called for a transparent investigation from the police over the death of the driver, Affan Kurniawan.
“We don’t want our colleagues here to become victims of this riot again,” he told Reuters, calling for action against those at fault.
Stand-up comedian Aci Resti attended a protest at the parliament against a generous housing allowance for lawmakers.
“I’m here to voice the opinions of my friends, who are fed up with everything, with the members of the House of Representatives, with everything, with the government,” she said.
Protesters were undeterred by earlier remarks by Prabowo calling for calm, expressing condolences for Affan Kurniawan’s death and ordering a thorough probe of the incident.
“I am shocked and disappointed by the excessive actions of the officers,” Prabowo, whose presidency nears its one-year anniversary in October, said in a video message. “I have ordered a thorough and transparent investigation ... and officers involved must be held accountable.”
The unrest has rattled investor confidence in Southeast Asia’s largest economy. The rupiah closed 0.9 per cent weaker against the dollar at 16,495, while the stock index fell as much as 2.3 per cent to hit its lowest point since August 12, before finishing down 1.5 per cent.
“If Prabowo isn’t careful ... protests may devolve into chaos,” Made Supriatma, a visiting fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, told Reuters.
A man waves a pirate flag from the Japanese anime ‘One Piece’, an internet trend used to criticise government policies, in front of the Greater Jakarta Metropolitan Regional Police headquarters in Jakarta on August 29, 2025, after a ride-hailing driver was killed by a police vehicle. — AFP pic
Police apology
The capital’s police chief, Asep Edi Suheri, said that during the clashes on Thursday an armoured police vehicle hit and killed Kurniawan, who worked for ride-sharing services Gojek and Grab. He apologised to Kurniawan’s family.
A motorcycle drivers’ association said Kurniawan was not involved in the protests.
On Friday afternoon, national police official Abdul Karim told reporters authorities would detain for 20 days the seven policemen who were in the vehicle that hit Kurniawan for a breach of ethics.
Kurniawan’s funeral was attended by hundreds of fellow ride-sharing motorcycle drivers, who escorted his body to the burial site in a convoy of two-wheelers through the centre of Jakarta.
“We are deeply disappointed, especially with the security officials and national police chief,” Ari Potret, a driver who attended Kurniawan’s funeral, told Reuters. “This is barbaric.”
Jakarta Legal Aid urged the government to release 600 people who had been arrested during the demonstrations. — Reuters
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