Indonesia Protests Over Political Cronyism (West Papua)
Kanako Mita, Noriko Watanabe, and Sawako Utsumi
Modern Tokyo Times
Jakarta saw protests erupt over extravagant political allowances in Indonesia.
In response, riot police were deployed to control the growing unrest, which was driven by workers, students, and political activists.
The Guardian reports, “Thousands of students, workers and activists demonstrated outside the nation’s parliament on Monday against a monthly housing allowance of 50 million rupiah ($US3,075) for MPs, which is almost 10 times the Jakarta minimum wage.”
Lavish political perks in a country where ordinary citizens are struggling sparked widespread public anger — even among those not actively protesting against Indonesia’s internal political cronyism.
Demonstrators also highlighted the influence of “corrupt elites,” pointing to opaque deals involving major conglomerates and the military. This pattern, sadly, is not unique to Indonesia — it echoes across nations, from China to Brazil and throughout the halls of power worldwide.
In March, Indonesia passed a controversial law expanding the military’s role in civilian affairs, a move critics see as a step backward for democratic oversight. This month, the government announced the creation of 100 new military battalions, not for defense purposes, but to be trained in agriculture and animal husbandry — a decision that raises concerns about the blurring of military and civilian responsibilities.
Also, last month, the government revealed plans for the military to begin manufacturing pharmaceuticals, further deepening its involvement in sectors traditionally managed by civilian institutions.
Signs of mounting public anger toward President Prabowo Subianto — a former general — are surfacing across various regions of Indonesia.
Monday’s protest follows a wave of unrest in Central Java and Sulawesi, where thousands have taken to the streets in recent weeks to oppose sharp increases in property taxes.
West Papua
Meanwhile, in West Papua, the relentless persecution of the indigenous Papuan people continues unabated. Predominantly Christian and ethnically distinct from the Javanese—who dominate the largely Muslim Indonesian state—the Papuans have faced decades of violence, Javanese colonial imposition, ruthless exploitation of their natural resources, and other brutal realities. Despite this, the international community has largely remained silent, tolerating these ongoing abuses.
Indonesia’s key trading partners—including the United States, China, Japan, India, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, and the Philippines—have offered little more than muted responses to the severe human rights crisis in West Papua. Meanwhile, Australia prioritizes its military and geopolitical relationship with Jakarta, often turning a blind eye to Papuan suffering, even as it vocally condemns human rights violations in distant conflicts like Ukraine.
The Guardian reports, “West Papua is the western half of the island of New Guinea, home to the world’s third-largest rainforest. It is rich in natural resources, including the world’s largest gold and copper mine as well as extensive reserves of natural gas, minerals and timber.”
The Guardian continues, “West Papuans say more than 500,000 of their people have been killed by the occupation in the past six decades, while millions of acres of their ancestral lands have been destroyed for corporate profit.”
Accordingly, protests in Jakarta against political cronyism on the global stage are likely to be met with silence. After all, the world’s disregard for the plight of indigenous Papuans exposes the profound political and moral bankruptcy of the global elite.
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