President Prabowo Subianto of Indonesia said on Sunday that the country’s House of Representatives had agreed to some policy changes that protesters across the country had been demanding over a week of demonstrations.
Thousands of protesters in several major Indonesian cities have been rallying since Monday in response to the country’s increasing cost of living and rising unemployment rate. Demonstrators demanded that the government cancel the high monthly housing allowances that lawmakers received, which many in the country see as lavish.
Mr. Prabowo’s announcement came after rioters on Sunday directed their rage at the homes of lawmakers and government officials, ransacking, vandalizing and looting the properties.
I’m not an expert in Indonesian politics, but it is kind of funny. A month ago, the only reason the protesters made international news was they adapted the One Piece pirate flag. Now they came true with their promise, looted the houses of lawmakers lol, and the ruling class was immediately rattled. If only we could loot Nancy Pelosi’s ice cream fridge
There is a labour party kind of but its not a huge influence considering they are not large enough to enter parliament and their leadership spends 50% of time appeasing the current president while endorsing the labor protests.
Honestly im kinda glad that foreign press coverage is low cuz that means less likely actual western interference is happening right now which would make thingw worse. That being said the situation is still frustating because the government especially Prabowo seems to really want to go back to Soeharto days of military rule but everyone to seems to be washed these days so every six months or so Indonesia the government attempts to pass a shitty regulation, police brutality happens which escalates things further, the government then half assed their opportunity to go full on military regime so they pass a slightly less shitty regulation which pass on as the new status quo.