Description: Indonesia’s government representatives and lawmakers met leaders of the civil protest groups in order to address their demands for the cessation of the unrest in the country. The minister of Indonesia’s State Secretariat, Prasetyo Hadi, who was present at the meeting, stated that the government would carefully consider the demands of the students without getting into further detail. Representatives from The Alliance of Indonesian women joined the wider civil unrest in a peaceful protest expanding the list of demands and changes for President Subianto’s government. The protests have so far claimed the lives of more than 10 people, while 3 thousand more were injured or imprisoned in Indonesia’s largest civil unrest, reminiscent of the protests in 1998, when former authoritarian leader Suharto was ousted.
Impact: The scope of the civil movement in Indonesia continues to expand, despite the government’s limited concessions and calls for de-escalation. The meeting between government representatives and some of the leaders of the protesting groups received mixed signals as other leaders denounced the initiative while the ones present at the meeting claimed it marked significant progress in accomplishing substantial compromises with the ruling government. Currently, there is no existing evidence of foreign interference in Indonesia’s instability, which makes the issue exclusively domestic, while the open channel communication between the protesters and the government spurs potential for political consensus. The protests are still expected to continue as their scale of impact touches upon marginalized groups, such as The Alliance of Indonesian women, which are joining forces with other civil protesting groups. The level of escalation would strongly depend on the government’s response towards the demands of the protesters and the methods of scaling down the violence across the country by Indonesia’s security forces.