Twenty people remain missing after Indonesian protests widen beyond lawmaker perks

# Twenty people remain missing after Indonesian protests widen beyond lawmaker perks

On event date 2025-09-01, an Indonesian rights group said 20 people were still missing after protests that began over lawmakers’ perks but grew into a wider movement against police violence and state conduct.

The Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence, known as KontraS, said it had received 23 missing-person reports and verified 20 people as still unfound. The cases were spread across Bandung and Depok in West Java, and across parts of the capital region in Jakarta. That makes the unrest not just a city-centred disturbance but a wider search and verification challenge for civil society and authorities.

The protests were already deadly. The evidence says at least six people had been killed since the unrest began the previous week. Anger intensified after footage spread of a young delivery driver killed by a paramilitary police unit, giving the movement a visible and emotional flashpoint. What started as anger over perks for lawmakers therefore became a broader confrontation over force, accountability and public trust.

President Prabowo Subianto responded by reversing course on the lawmaker perks that first triggered the protests. Even so, demonstrations continued, and the state’s response became more forceful. The evidence notes that 1,240 people had been arrested in Jakarta since August 25 and that military units were deployed across the capital.

The rights climate looked increasingly tense. Police arrested Delpedro Marhaen, the director of the Lokataru Foundation, on suspicion of incitement. The report also says officers identified 38 other suspects for alleged “anarchic activities.” Meanwhile, the United Nations human rights office called for an investigation into possible unnecessary or disproportionate use of force.

The scale of the street response was broad. Demonstrations were reported in Palembang, Banjarmasin, Yogyakarta, Makassar and Gorontalo, with police using tear gas and water cannon in some places. That national spread suggests a discontent that reaches beyond one capital district or one policy grievance.

The source material also shows a deep information battle. Social media claims accused police of firing into a campus in Bandung, while police denied directing shots there and the university rejected claims that its students instigated unrest. That dispute matters because it shows how quickly a protest movement can become wrapped up in contested narratives about responsibility.

For now, the key fact is simple and stark: 20 people remain unaccounted for. In a protest wave already marked by deaths, arrests and military deployment, the missing-person reports may become one of the clearest measures of how serious the unrest has become.

The government may have backed away from the perks, but the protests have moved on to a broader question of how the state responds when public anger spills into the streets.