Jakarta: Thousands of Indonesians protested outside police headquarters in Jakarta on Friday after a young motorcycle taxi driver was struck and killed by an armored police vehicle during demonstrations in the capital, sparking widespread outrage across the country.
Affan Kurniawan, a 21-year-old taxi and delivery rider, was run over by the police vehicle on Thursday night when a protest in central Jakarta turned chaotic.
Amateur videos circulating widely online showed the fatal crash and the armored vehicle leaving the scene. Amid rising public anger on social media, fellow drivers staged a late-night rally to demand justice for the victim.
Tensions were high as protests continued in different parts of Jakarta on Friday, with people chanting “Killers!” as they gathered outside the headquarters of the Mobile Brigade anti-riot police, the national police, and the Jakarta police.
Many of the protesters were motorcycle taxi drivers dressed in their signature green jackets, similar to the one Kurniawan was wearing when the incident took place.
Seven officers who were in the armored vehicle have been named suspects and an investigation is underway, Abdul Karim, head of the professional and security division of the Indonesian police, told a press conference on Friday.
In a recorded video message, President Prabowo Subianto said he was “shocked and disappointed” by the “excessive actions” of the officers.
“I have ordered a thorough and transparent investigation into last night’s incident, and for all officers involved to take responsibility,” he said. “In this situation, I urge the public to remain calm (and) to put trust in the government that I am leading.”
Indonesia’s national police chief, Listyo Sigit Prabowo, issued a public apology hours after the incident on Thursday, promising that the police would investigate.
“I deeply regret the incident and extend my sincerest condolences to the victim, his family, and the entire ride-hailing community,” he said.
The demonstrations on Friday were the third major protest in Jakarta this week, initially fueled by increasing public anger against lawmakers and the government. Demonstrations have also spread to other Indonesian cities, including Bandung in west Java, and Surakarta in central Java.
Students, workers, and activists began demonstrating outside Indonesia’s parliament on Monday in protest at the payment of what they say is an exorbitant housing allowance of 50 million rupiah ($3,030) for each lawmaker, almost 10 times the minimum wage in Jakarta.
Protests continued and spread to various parts of Jakarta on Thursday, with demonstrators also demanding higher wages, lower taxes, and government intervention to stop mass layoffs.
During the protests police officers in riot gear fired tear-gas canisters and used water cannon to try to disperse the crowds.
“The brutal actions and use of violence by officers who are fully armed and deadly not only violates the principles of democracy and human rights, but confirms that the government and law enforcement officers fail to … create a state that sides with the people,” a coalition of 211 civil society organizations, which include the Jakarta Legal Aid and Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, said in a statement.
At least 55 people have died due to police violence between July 2024 and June 2025, the coalition said.
“The government’s silence over the national police’s brutality is the same as giving them a blessing. It’s even worthy of suspecting that violence is the state’s strategy to silence critics.
“We believe this tragedy demonstrates a dangerous path for democracy. Without change, this country will no longer be a democracy, but rather a tyrannical state in a new guise,” the statement added.
Outrage grows in Indonesia after police ram delivery rider in fatal protest clash
https://arab.news/vj8hd
Outrage grows in Indonesia after police ram delivery rider in fatal protest clash
- Major protests in Jakarta this week fueled by rising public anger over ‘exorbitant’ allowance for lawmakers
- On Friday, demonstrations spread to other Indonesian cities, including Bandung, Surakarta
Starvation fears as flood toll passes 900 in Indonesia
- More than 1,790 people have been killed in natural disasters unfolding across Southeast Asia over the past week
- Floods have swept away roads, smothered houses in silt, and cut off supplies in Indonesia's provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra
More than 1,790 people have been killed in natural disasters unfolding across Southeast Asia over the past week
Floods have swept away roads, smothered houses in silt, and cut off supplies in Indonesia's provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia: Ruinous floods and landslides have killed more than 900 people on Indonesia’s island of Sumatra, the country’s disaster management agency said Saturday, with fears that starvation could send the toll even higher.
A chain of tropical storms and monsoonal rains has pummelled Southeast and South Asia, triggering landslides and flash floods from the Sumatran rainforest to the highland plantations of Sri Lanka.
More than 1,790 people have been killed in natural disasters unfolding across Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam over the past week.
In Indonesia’s provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra, floods have swept away roads, smothered houses in silt, and cut off supplies.
Aceh governor Muzakir Manaf said response teams were still searching for bodies in “waist-deep” mud.
However, starvation was one of the gravest threats now hanging over remote and inaccessible villages.
“Many people need basic necessities. Many areas remain untouched in the remote areas of Aceh,” he told reporters.
“People are not dying from the flood, but from starvation. That’s how it is.”
Entire villages had been washed away in the rainforest-cloaked Aceh Tamiang region, Muzakir said.
“The Aceh Tamiang region is completely destroyed, from the top to the bottom, down to the roads and down to the sea.
“Many villages and sub-districts are now just names,” he said.
Aceh Tamiang flood victim Fachrul Rozi said he had spent the past week crammed into an old shop building with others who had fled the rising waters.
“We ate whatever was available, helping each other with the little supplies each resident had brought,” he told AFP.
“We slept crammed together.”
Aceh resident Munawar Liza Zainal said he felt “betrayed” by the Indonesian government, which has so far shrugged off pressure to declare a national disaster.
“This is an extraordinary disaster that must be faced with extraordinary measures,” he told AFP, echoing frustrations voiced by other flood victims.
“If national disaster status is only declared later, what’s the point?“
Declaring a national disaster would free up resources and help government agencies coordinate their response.
Analysts have suggested Indonesia could be reluctant to declare a disaster — and seek additional foreign aid — because it would show it was not up to the task.
Indonesia’s government this week insisted it could handle the fallout.
Climate calamity
The scale of devastation has only just become clear in other parts of Sumatra as engorged rivers shrink and floodwaters recede.
AFP photos showed muddy villagers salvaging silt-encrusted furniture from flooded houses in Aek Ngadol, North Sumatra.
Humanitarian groups worry that the scale of the calamity could be unprecedented, even for a nation prone to natural disasters.
Indonesia’s death toll rose to 908 on Saturday, according to the disaster management agency, with 410 people missing.
Sri Lanka’s death toll jumped on Friday to 607, as the government warned that fresh rains raised the risk of new landslides.
Thailand has reported 276 deaths and Malaysia two, while at least two people were killed in Vietnam after heavy rains triggered a series of landslides.
Seasonal monsoon rains are a feature of life in Southeast Asia, flooding rice fields and nourishing the growth of other key crops.
However, climate change is making the phenomenon more erratic, unpredictable and deadly throughout the region.
Environmentalists and Indonesia’s government have also suggested that logging and deforestation exacerbated landslides and flooding in Sumatra.
