We’ve had enough

The collective frustration of Indonesians exploded into the storming of the DPR and the holding of hostages.

Amber Cheng Yan Yu | Jakarta Post

---

Politicians in the midst of an extended break were held at gunpoint by five armed assailants who promptly took them hostage in the Nusantra Building. Upon forcing the DPR into a room, protestors, the self-proclaimed Honourable People, continued holding lawmakers at gunpoint whilst ordering them to hand over the money stashed beneath their placards. The money, which amounted to thick wads of rupiah, was passed to the leader of the five. 

Their leader bore an uncanny resemblance to local fisherman Nadim Penyet Supian-to bin Ayam, who had stormed the Parliamentary Complex just yesterday, and launched a tirade accompanied by a curated slideshow of the Honourable People’s demands. Chief among them was that lawmakers were required to draft and pass an anti-corruption bill within an hour. 

Scuffles between representatives and protestors did occur, namely between PDI-P’s Arteria Dahlan and the leader of the Honourable People. The interaction escalated to the point where Dahlan was held at gunpoint, before being let go by the protest leader after a back-and-forth between the two. 

Additionally, their leader proceeded to berate representatives on their blatant corruption that has been siphoning income away from working-class Indonesians, labelling them as ‘greedy’, ‘self-centred’, and ‘privileged’ individuals apathetic to the well-being of everyday citizens. His sentiment is echoed by millions of Indonesians suffering under egregious income inequality, and plagued by the cancers that are poor governance and destitution at the hands of elites in their ivory towers. 

The amount of money confiscated from lawmakers today speaks for itself; if that was what we took from their desks alone, how much more is lining their pockets? Moreover, how much of that came from causes meant to help Indonesians trapped in poor living conditions and improve our infrastructure for the benefit of all? 

Perhaps most surprisingly, the military has actively cooperated with nationwide protests. In stark contrast to its usual loyalty to the government during times of unrest, the military has instead directly provided protestors with the arms used to force their way into the Parliamentary Complex. It has also acted in open defiance of the government, refusing to carry out lawmakers’ orders and rendering any attempts at imposing martial law useless. 

With this revelation, lawmakers have been cornered by both civil society and the armed forces. Amidst the backdrop of recent protests against the bill that increases housing allowances of affluent lawmakers, the premeditated nature of this demonstration and the unprecedented military cooperation with protestors sends a clear message: the nation has had enough. 

Deprived of any alternatives to hide behind, representatives have been forced to face the music and answer for the same empty promises of prosperity and welfare we elected them for. 

Graft and bribery have become an invisible vice that has strangled our nation for decades. Public dissatisfaction with authorities has repeatedly been reflected in our historically poor scores on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) and CPI Rankings that lag behind both our regional and global counterparts.^[1] Today’s incident is merely the explosion of a dynamite stick that had a fuse that had been shortening for far too long. 

Even if martial law were an available option, it would only serve to bottle up discontent until it boils over in the near future. Solutions must have continuity beyond this anti-corruption law, providing adequate, reliable checks and balances in the long term and ensuring an equitable distribution of wealth throughout the country. 

Representatives will have no choice but to hinder their own plans to line their pockets for now. However, if they truly do not wish for a repeat of this incident, the only way is to nip their problems in the bud. 

Bibliography

Corruption Perceptions Index 2024 - transparency.org. Accessed December 11, 2025. https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2024.