While the root of the problem of state policies that sparked mass protests in August 2025 has not changed much to date, the state's response to the protests still leads to the choice of a repressive approach in August 2026, said Amnesty International Indonesia today (27/08) in relation to a year since the August Tempest, which claimed 13 lives.
The policies that have not changed include the continuation of national strategic projects (PSN), the role of the military in the civil sphere, employment and worker welfare issues, delayed legislation on the confiscation of corrupt assets and the increasing cost of living due to the declining economic situation. Almost all of these policies were highlighted again by student demonstrators from various campuses in Jakarta and the people of Pati from Central Java who took to the streets of Jakarta on August 27.
Instead of being stopped or evaluated, PSNs are becoming increasingly problematic partly due to large-scale forest fires which is triggering a crisis in public health, the environment and animal conservation. Then, instead of listening to demands for the Indonesian Military (TNI) to return to barracks, the new TNI Law further expanded the military's territorial command structure in the form of establishing new regional military commands and territorial development battalions. Apart from that, the new Criminal Procedural Code (KUHAP), which is claimed to be better, still contains anti-human rights articles, and even then law enforcement officials and banking service providers ignored the new KUHAP when they blocked the account of a protest leader from Pati without judicial supervision.
"The fact that policy has not changed much is proof that their aspirations have not been heard. That was the root of public dissatisfaction that sparked further protests. Even though many of them are undergoing legal proceedings such as Khariq Anhar, who is still on trial, or Supriyono, the Pati activist who was tried last year and had his account blocked this year, their dissatisfaction with the state has not disappeared. The state should fix the roots of the policies being protested", said Amnesty International Indonesia Executive Director Usman Hamid.
"The August 2025 demonstrations were a dark tragedy. The state refused to listen to the aspirations of citizens and was repressive through the largest operation to silence young people post-1998. This tragedy leaves question marks and gave rise to impunity. The state has not seriously investigated the deaths of 13 people during the dispersal of a mass demonstration last year", added Hamid.
Biggest criminalisation since 1998
State repression continues, as can be seen from the fact that more than 470 people, the majority of whom were young people, who were tried last year in connection with the August 2025 demonstrations. Only eleven people received acquittals. One other person died while undergoing the legal process. There are also those who are still undergoing trial and awaiting the judge's verdict in a number of courts, including the Central Jakarta District Court (PN) and the South Jakarta District Court.
Amnesty recorded nine typologies of charges with various accusations used by prosecutors to convict them: namely inciting riots and hatred against groups based on SARA (ethnic, religion, race, inter-group inspired conflicts) which violates the Criminal Code (KUHP) and the Information and Electronic Transaction (ITE) Law (35 people), violating articles related to the national flag, language and emblem and the national anthem (2 people), crimes against public order (39 people), crimes against public authorities (27 people), destruction or damage of property (57 people), beatings causing minor or serious injuries (227 people), crimes of endangering public security for people or property (66 people) and crimes of firearms or sharp objects (21 people).
Demographically, the criminalisation of participants in the August 2025 actions occurred in 11 provinces. DKI Jakarta (Jakarta province), East Java and Central Java were the provinces that tried the most people, with 128, 111 and 91 defendants respectively.
"This is the largest imprisonment of young people post-1998. It is clear that this punishment aims to make them afraid to speak out. Even though they are the main agents of change. Indonesia has chosen authoritarian tactics to silence young people. But that won't drown out their voices", Hamid said.
Criminalisation continuing in the courts
Even though one year has passed since the August 2025 demonstrations, currently three young activists are still undergoing trial and awaiting verdicts at the Central Jakarta District Court and the South Jakarta District Court.
They are Khariq Anhar who is facing the prosecutor's demand for six months in prison, then Yusuf Maulana who is facing two years in prison, and Mansurni Abadi who is currently in the witness examination stage. Anhar is a final year student who has just graduated. He was arrested on August 29, 2025, an is still facing an ongoing legal process.
The panel of judges acquitted Anhar through an interim decision at a court hearing on January 23 regarding a text overwriting case. This is evidence that the prosecutor's indictment is fragile. This undermined the construction of the prosecutor's accusation which portrayed Anhar as the provocateur of the August 2025 riots. However, the prosecutor again indicted Anhar for the same case in February 2026.
"It is truly ironic that this criminalisation process has lasted more than a year. This is proof that time is not an obstacle for the state to relentlessly pursue and punish young people who dare to criticise the government", said Hamid.
"This criminalisation seems to be the state's choice to respond to criticism. What is regrettable is that the courts failed to be the last bastion for young people to seek justice after courts in various cities in Indonesia convicted 458 people, the majority of whom were young people, related to the August 2025 demonstration", added Hamid.
No transparency in investigation into deaths
The state promised to criminally investigate the murder of motorcycle taxi driver Affan Kurniawan, but until now there is no clarity, except for ethical sanctions against police officers regarding his death.
"The state was quick to arrest young activists during the August 2025 demonstration, but was slow to investigate the deaths of 13 citizens", said Amnesty International Indonesia Deputy Director Wirya Adiwena.
"This is real impunity. Aside from this, the police have violated the rights of the victims' families to receive information and clarity regarding the criminal investigation into the deaths of these 13 people. The public's rights were also violated because there was no transparency regarding the steps the police had taken to thoroughly investigate their deaths", added Adiwena.
Repression of August 27 demos
Instead of responding to the root of the problem and the demands of the mass demonstrations a year ago, the state is aggressively silencing critical voices to create an atmosphere of fear ahead demonstration marking one year since August 2025.
The state's failure to follow up on the demands of the masses last year meant that students and the community took to the streets again this August, even though they had to experience repression from the authorities aimed at hindering their mobilisation.
Amnesty International condemns the closure of access for students who wanted to demonstrate peacefully at Jakarta's Hotel Indonesia (HI) traffic circle and also the blocking of the account of a Pati activist who raised public funds for the protest in Jakarta on August 27. These repressive actions cannot be justified because according to human rights principles, everyone has the right to peaceful demonstration.
A number of activists also claimed they experienced digital attacks on their accounts on social media. Digital repression also occurred in the form of slowing internet connections when masses of students held a peaceful demonstration in the Sudirman area of Central Jakarta on August 18. This hampered the dissemination of information regarding what happened during the demonstration. Apart from that, the police also prohibited students from using command vehicles during the action.
The University of Indonesia Student Executive Board (BEM UI) also said that as many as 24 Kopaja bus drivers, who had been asked to transport students to the protest location, were suspected of being intimidated so they cancelled the bookings unilaterally. This resulted in delays in student mobilisation to Jakarta for the action on August 18.
Residents who uploaded information related to the August 2025 demonstration also experienced criminalisation one year after the tragedy. The Jakarta Metropolitan Police recently claimed to have taken action against 28 social media activists related to 37 accounts accused of spreading provocative content and hoaxes from June to August 2026.
Police detained 10 on charges of electronic data manipulation, defamation and spreading fake news. Likewise, the West Java Regional Police arrested two people for incitement on social media just for uploading and commenting on the president's statement regarding Iran's nuclear weapons.
"This kind of criminalisation in digital spaces proves that the authorities continue to create a climate of fear in society through authoritarian tactics to silence criticism in public spaces. Don't use criminalisation to silence critical voices on social media. The government must provide more intensive education regarding social media literacy, including tackling the spread of fake news, not through criminalisation", continued Adiwena.
A year has passed since August 2025 tragedy, but civil society's struggle to demand justice, accountability and the fulfillment of human rights will not die.
"Even though the state continues to strive to protect human rights violators and still ignores the social and economic suffering of the people, civil society will continue to move to voice justice and fight against impunity", said Adiwena in closing.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Setahun Prahara 28 Agustus 2025: Akar Ketidakpuasan Tetap Sama".]
