On August 28, just before inequality protests spread like wildfire across Indonesia, the police blocked a peaceful climate march on the streets of Jakarta. Indigenous peoples, farmers, fisherfolk and people in wheelchairs carrying fairly innocuous signs that read, “Save the Earth! Save generations!” were pushed back by the police and prevented from reaching the State Palace, a frequent demonstration site.Even though climate advocates formally notified authorities of the march, held to urge the passage of a Climate Justice Bill, demonstrators still got a small taste of aggressive police tactics. These police tactics turned deadly later in the week in fiery youth-led protests against lawmaker perks, in which at least 10 people were killed and thousands detained.There’s no sugarcoating what many Indonesians feel about the recent violence: anger but also dread and fear. We are a nation of survivors, having faced the brutality of a military dictatorship that lasted three decades and killed an estimated 500,000 to one million civilians. Our collective skins bear the scars of authoritarian rule, which still tingle. But we’ve also never allowed guns and tear gas to silence us – which is why civil society has pushed initial demands to scrap lawmaker perks even further.Now, people no longer want just piecemeal responses that try to put the lid on boiling rage. They want thorough reforms that …
