Life was slowly returning to normal in the Indonesian capital on Thursday, May 23 after two days of protests that started out peacefully on both days but ended in clashes with the police when night fell. The protests, on the surface, were a reaction from supporters of failed presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto. The retired general has repeatedly cast doubt on the results of an election that everyone – from official election bodies to monitors and international observers – has declared clean of any major violations.
Both Prabowo and his rival incumbent President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo ended election night as winners—Jokowi by quick count results, and Prabowo by his own counts. Jokowi was later and proclaimed winner by official tallies released by the General Elections Commission (KPU). As the deadline for the KPU results approached this week, there was no doubt on the streets of Jakarta that Prabowo’s supporters would protest the official count, following in Prabowo’s footsteps. His supporters started to arrive on Tuesday—after the KPU called the election in Jokowi’s favor by more than 17 million votes—many of them armed with their own allegations of voter fraud.
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“The Indonesian election was rigged in favor of Jokowi,” Arif Hidayat, a 24-year-old protestor who took the train in from suburban Bekasi told VICE. “The PDI-P (Jokowi’s political party) has power over the KPU. So we’re demanding the Election Supervisory Board to be neutral. The point is, Prabowo won the larger provinces. So why did the KPU decide Jokowi was the winner? We’re here demanding he be disqualified.”
Official results show that while Prabowo did win a lot of larger provinces, so did Jokowi—the split was five of the top 10 provinces, population wise, for each candidate. Still, the belief among many of those at the protest was that those voter tallies could not be trusted.
“I’ve witnessed everything from the beginning—I was a Polling Station Working Committee (KPPS) member, and I’ve seen all the fraud coming from Jokowi and his vice presidential candidate’s political elite,” Muhammad Iqbal, a 50-year-old protestor also from Bekasi told VICE.
“It’s not easy to report the fraud, and it won’t ever be settled. The government would just ignore it. They must show us the truth. The people deserve to know everything. It’s like they’re hiding something, so it’s not our fault if we, the opposition, think they’re not fair. As a government, they should have informed us if there’s something fishy.”
VICE reporters spent much of the protests on the streets, either near Jalan M.H. Thamrin, where the largest group of protestors had gathered, or in Slipi, West Jakarta, where the riots were at their most violent. By witnessing both nights and comparing our notes we came across several key takeaways:
- There were two distinct actions taking place during the protests: a peaceful side that happened during the day until a few hours after the protestors broke their Ramadan fasts, and a more violent, chaotic one that carried on until late in the night.
- No one could agree on who the violent protestors actually were. The police held press conferences throughout the protests showing the press evidence that the riots were being paid for by someone. Many of the rioters had envelopes of cash stuffed in their pockets. Jakarta police say they had recordings and WhatsApp conversations showing that the most violent rioters had planned their actions in advance. Some arrived with weapons and Molotov cocktails ready to riot. An ambulance provided by an unnamed political party was found full of rocks and cash. To the police, and members of the Jokowi administration, the violence was an orchestrated event, not an instance of “people power” boiling over in anger.
- But the peaceful protestors on the scene repeatedly told VICE reporters that the “provocateurs” were being paid for by someone else who wanted to undermine their goals of forcing the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) to listen to their claims of election fraud. Prabowo’s spokesman issued a similar statement, telling the press that they had repeatedly issued calls for a calm protest and that the violence was the work of provocateurs.
- Still, someone was helping orchestrate the protests themselves. Numerous protestors told VICE reporters that they would leave when their “commander” told them it was time to go. Others, like Arif, the 24-year-old from Bekasi, said he was following the orders of the “Grand Imam”—a reference to Habib Rizieq Shihab, the head of the hardline Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) who is currently living in self-imposed exile in Saudi Arabia.
“We’ll keep going, we’ll wait on guidance from the grand imam,” Arif told VICE. “If the Grand Imam Habib Rizieq calls for a ‘government coup d’etat,’ we’re ready to fight to the death, but only if Habib orders it, not Prabowo. We Bekasi residents are still waiting on the Grand Imam’s command because we submit only to him.”
But this doesn’t mean the FPI itself was involved in the riots either. Arif isn’t a member of the FPI, and describes himself as a 212 alumnus, meaning he took part in the protests that ousted Jakarta’s former governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama for alleged blasphemy, a Chinese Christian and former running mate of Jokowi. The FPI were actually involved in trying to keep the protestors calm, working alongside the police to prevent violence during the first night of riots, according to news reports.
- Early claims that protestors were fatally shot by someone—the protestors say the police, the police say the provocateurs—were really overblown. Two protestors who died were brought to Central Jakarta’s Tarakan Hospital with what looked like gunshot wounds. However, there’s no way to know what they were shot with because their families refused an autopsy, explained Dr. Reggy S. Sobari, a hospital spokesman who was who was on-shift during much of the protests. Numerous protestors arrived at the hospital saying they were shot and were carrying the bullet themselves in their hands. In these instances, the bullets were rubber. The other four who died were stabbed, not shot, according to the police.
- Today things are calm, but we don’t know for how long. Prabowo himself urged protestors to go home and remain calm in a video speech sent out early Thursday morning, telling the crowds to “Just trust your leaders, we’ll still fight through the constitutional legal process. I want you all to be patient and stay calm.” There was still a heavy police presence in the streets on Thursday but Jakarta Police officials said there were no protests scheduled for the day. Still, that didn’t mean that someone wouldn’t try to riot anyway, they warned. The police were issuing a circular warning that tensions might remain high until the weekend.
- A lot of Indonesian Muslims were fed up with the protests and riots, especially the use of the word “rakyat,” or people. The local press, and the protestors themselves, were calling this a sign of “people power.” Alissa Wahid, the daughter of former President Abdurrahman Wahid (popularly known as Gus Dur), responded with the hashtag #TidakAtasNamaSaya, or #NotInMyName. Soon the hashtag spread across Twitter as Indonesians responded calling the protests, and their allegations, a scene of senseless bloodshed and unmitigated chaos.
- Hundreds were arrested in the protests and ensuing riots—more than 240 in total. By Thursday, police were still questioning those detained while their friends and families gathered outside the Jakarta Police headquarters in SCBD waiting for word of who was actually inside.
- Even if the protests are done, it doesn’t mean this is over yet. Prabowo has challenged the KPU’s decision in the Constitutional Court, which extends this current period of uncertainty for at least another month.
