Society
Protests in Indonesia: Death, Lies and Videos
There is reason to believe that unfriendly external forces are trying to sow “controllable chaos” in the country.
Timeline of events
The protesters were silenced only after the army joined in restoring order on August 29, operating carefully, but effectively. Now, after the protests, huge amounts of rubbish, rubble, and burnt items are being cleaned up in the cities. The transport infrastructure of Jakarta alone requires repairs that will take at least a week.
An unpeaceful protest
It is now safe to say that, from the very beginning, on August 25, the protests very quickly turned violent. The protesters attacked the police, vandalized various objects and threw things at passing cars, smashed a street surveillance camera etc. At that time, the police detained 351 people (155 adults and 196 minors, whose extensive participation became an important tool for coordinating the protests). Seven of the detainees were entirely under the influence of drugs.
Legitimate questions arise: if the protesters allegedly opposed specific economic issues, then why did they smash infrastructure, burn public transport stops, break windows, damage walls with graffiti? It was not a peaceful protest, but a textbook example of “controlled chaos”. The protests also targeted police stations and municipal authorities in Jakarta, Bandung, Makassar, Yogyakarta, Medan and other cities, as well as suburbs. Even the resort-filled Bali was affected, and there tear gas was used against the thundering crowd.
These events were very clearly staged, taking place simultaneously in different places – as if on command – and in waves. The protesters smashed, set fire to, attacked the houses of parliamentarians, looted and vandalized the residence of the finance minister. Stones, sticks, firecrackers, and Molotov cocktails were used against the police. At least three employees of the municipal parliament in Makassar were killed in an arson attack on the building, and several more were seriously injured and in critical condition. The protesters (whom certain media outlets persistently refer to as “students”) used Molotov cocktails, which were thrown through the windows. What a terrifyingly familiar style… Who made them, who taught them how to do it? And then, as in other places, the building was looted and everything the looters could possibly snatch disappeared from the charred building, including – no matter how wild it may sound – parts of the air conditioners.
À la color revolution
It can be noted that the protesters are well coordinated, and there are more experienced instructors among them. Everyone is conveniently and continuously shooting videos, and some of the posters are in English (probably so that Western TV channels can pick them up right away). In short, directions were given online, and during interrogations detainees admit that they learned about where to attack and where there is an opportunity to steal from information online. They constantly try to frame the police – a classic move. The protesters were taught to practically throw themselves at the guards’ feet and with Indonesian flags in their hands. Why were they carrying them if they are protesting against the state, against their country? But no, that is the way it is supposed to be, that is how they were taught so it could be shown on Western TV channels later. And, as usual, the instructors threw young people with inexperienced minds filled with misinformation, students and underage teenagers, onto the barricades. It looks absurd when they try to talk about “police reform” and the like on social media, even though they are clueless about public administration and politics due to their age and lack of education. The police blocked minors wherever they could. The online channels that gathered them have already been identified.
Against this background, a sea of affiliated pseudo-researchers and unscrupulous media outlets can be expected to cry out in unison, as if they had not heard about looters, arson and the dead, but sympathize with the protests and put forward their “demands” to President Prabowo Subianto. Some Western information and analytical resources even openly justified the attacks, and yet they play the same footage, quoting individual “students” and an Indonesian stand-up comedian, who, it turns out, is also “protesting”. Some Indonesian actors, directors and producers were quick to speak out for the protests and post relevant posts on Western social networks. Show business, as it often happens, is the first to show its rotting colors along with unscrupulous media. They are not with the state, but instead choose those who kill, rob, destroy everything in their path and masterfully send the crowd to face tear gas and water cannons.
Meanwhile, they are trying to present the taxi driver as an “innocent” victim, and a whole information campaign has been launched in the media. Everything is exaggerated, and the style is wholly recognizable. Now they claim that he was allegedly not a protester, which begs the question: what else would he have been doing there, in the midst of the demonstrators, when the police began to gather and disperse them? “Human rights activists”, what do you think? Atnike Nova Sigiro, a member of the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission, says that the police should not defend themselves from the madding crowd at the protests, but show “politeness and care”. I would like to ask if she is in her right mind. Maybe we should also give coffee with milk to the protesters? But the media is echoing her words. She is not saying anything about the innocent people who died horribly in the fire in Makassar. She should go there and look at their disfigured corpses, and only then make comments. Alas, nobody remembers them, and only the mayor of Makassar came to the hospital to see the wounded.
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So far, the Indonesian state is holding its own. Also, in response to recent events, the government has already demanded that social networks operating in Indonesia open local representative offices and moderate content due to the widespread spread of misinformation. This is an important measure. Indonesia is a regional power and one of the leaders of the Global South, and will most certainly defend its right to independently determine its path for development, along with foreign and domestic policy. It would also be wise to also learn from one’s own and others’ mistakes to become stronger to withstand the turmoil of the modern world.
Ksenia Muratshina, Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Southeast Asia, Australia and Oceania of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences
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