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17+8 demands from the Indonesian protesters

Core Principles: Transparency · Reformation · Empathy

The Left Berlin
02/09/2025

Trust is earned, not given.
We are waiting — prove to us that you are listening.

17 Demands Within 1 Week

(Deadline: 5 September 2025)

Responsibilities of the President

Withdraw the military (TNI) from civilian security and end the criminalization of demonstrators.
Establish an Independent Investigation Team into the cases of Affan Kurniawan, Umar Amarudin, and all victims of state violence and human rights violations during the August 28–30 protests, with a clear and transparent mandate.

Responsibilities of Parliament (DPR)

3. Freeze salary/benefit increases for DPR members and cancel new facilities (including pensions).
4. Proactively publish full budget transparency (salaries, benefits, housing, facilities).
5. Launch ethical and judicial investigations (including through KPK) into corrupt or problematic DPR members.

Responsibilities of Political Parties

6. Strictly sanction or expel cadres who act unethically and provoke public anger.
7. Publicly commit to standing with the people in times of crisis.
8. Involve party members in public dialogue with students and civil society.

Responsibilities of the Police

9. Release all detained demonstrators.
10. End police violence and comply with existing SOPs for crowd control.
11. Transparently prosecute and bring to justice officers and commanders responsible for violence and human rights violations.

Responsibilities of the Military (TNI)

12. Return immediately to the barracks and cease involvement in civilian security.
13. Enforce internal discipline to prevent TNI members from taking over police functions.
14. Make a public commitment not to intervene in civilian spaces during the democratic crisis.

Responsibilities of the Economic Sector

15. Ensure decent wages for all sectors of the workforce (teachers, healthcare workers, laborers, ride-hailing partners, etc.).
16. Take emergency measures to prevent mass layoffs and protect contract workers.
17. Open dialogue with labor unions to resolve issues related to minimum wage and outsourcing.

8 Demands Within 1 Year

(Deadline: 31 August 2026)

Clean up and overhaul Parliament (DPR): conduct public independent audits, set higher standards for membership (reject corruptors), establish performance indicators, abolish privileges (lifetime pensions, special cars, escorts).
Reform political parties and strengthen oversight of the executive branch.
Draft a fairer tax reform plan and roll back unjust tax increases.
Pass and enforce the Law on Asset Confiscation from Corruptors (RUU Perampasan Aset): strengthen the KPK and the Anti-Corruption Law (Tipikor).
Reform the police to be professional and humane, with decentralized functions (security, traffic, national defense).
Return the military (TNI) fully to the barracks, without exceptions.
Strengthen the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) and other independent oversight bodies.
Review economic and labor policies, including revising the Omnibus Law on Job Creation and PSN priority projects, to protect workers, indigenous communities, and the environment.

These 17+8 demands are a summary* of various demands and calls that have been circulating on social media over the past few days, including:

The 7-day demands from@salsaer@jeromepolin @cherylmarella, the result of deliberations from millions of people’s voices in the comment section & Instagram Stories.

The demands of 211 civil society organizations published through YLBHI’s website.

Press Release of the Center for Indonesian Law and Policy
Studies (PSHK).

Statement of the Association of Master’s Students in Notarial Law, University of Indonesia.

Statement of the Center for Environmental Law & Climate
Justice, University of Indonesia.

Demands from the Labor Protest on August 28, 2025.

12 People’s Demands Towards Reform, Transparency & Justice by Reformasi Indonesia on Change.org, which has already received more than 40,000 signatures.

*This summary seeks to capture the essence of the various reference sources mentioned above and may not include all details in full. This summary also does not intend to overlook other demands that may have circulated at the same time.

🔥 We are waiting.
🔥 Prove to us that you are listening.

September 4, 2009 – Kunduz massacre

This week in working class history

Phil Butland

In the early hours of 4 September 2009, US planes dropped two 500-pound bombs on two fuel tankers in Kunduz, Afghanistan. This was a NATO mission, and the order to bomb was given by German Colonel Felix Klein. Well over 100 people were killed, most of them civilians, including many children. The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECHR) called the attack the “deadliest German military operation since the end of the Second World War”.

The German government showed no remorse. The army initially announced that there had been no civilian victims. Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung celebrated the attack, claiming that dozens of Taliban fighters had been killed. Jung’s successor, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, described the attack as “militarily appropriate”. There were no direct disciplinary or criminal investigations. In 2013, Colonel Klein, who had ordered the bombing, was promoted to brigadier general.

When lawyers representing the victims tried to prosecute, the German Ministry of Defence withheld important documents and reports. In February 2010, Germany amended its own laws, reclassifying the military deployment as an “armed conflict within the parameters of international law”. This meant that German troops, and their leaders, were no longer liable to prosecution for the Kunduz massacre.

In February 2010, an extensive article in Der Spiegel described the Kunduz bombing as a “war crime” that the German government had attempted to cover up. Two weeks later, during a Bundestag debate, LINKE MPs held up posters with the names of the victims. They were thrown out of the parliamentary chamber. Later that year, Germany paid $5,000 each to the families of 100 of the victims—former Afghan minister Amin Farhang described the sum as “laughable”. Larger claims for compensation were rejected by German courts.

In 2021, German troops left Afghanistan, forced out by a population which had suffered decades of occupation by both the Soviet Union and the US. History is being rewritten to suggest that before the Taliban took over Afghanistan, people lived in peace and democracy. Kunduz shows this was not the case and that Germany’s attempts to expand its army and reintroduce conscription must be resisted.

Sex and outrage sells

On Sydney Sweeny and American Eagle

Ellen McBride
31/08/2025

One month ago American Eagle launched its controversial ad campaign featuring Sydney Sweeney. It remains a hot topic on the internet. Sweeney has been a popular subject for celeb-related gossip for some time, from rumors of an affair with Glenn Powell of romcom Anyone But You to recent back-to-back box office bombs. She’s been threatening over-exposure for a while, and now appears to have reached the tipping point. I feel like every time I open an app I get a jeans jumpscare. In one snippet, with all the energy of a sloth on valium, Sweeney saunters around denim-clad, the camera zeroing in particularly on her behind as she admires herself in a mirror. “This is not me telling you to buy American Eagle jeans,” she tells the camera, before the slogan SYDNEY SWEENEY HAS GREAT JEANS splashes itself across the screen. In another, she mumbles her way through some boring gene factoids while buttoning up the fly and then schmoozes at the camera.

A few years ago, I was very much expecting her to climb to the ranks of the Silver Screen Gen Z Brat Pack. I didn’t predict her having quite the clout as Zendaya, Timothee Chalamet, etc, but I was expecting her to hover on the periphery of the group. Even with Euphoria season two exposing the show’s style-over-substance problem, she did her best with the material she was given,. It sounds strange, but Sweeney can really nail a whimpering, cowardly mess. She’s also appeared in other prestige shows such as Sharp Objects, The White Lotus, and The Handmaid’s Tale, and she’s given solid, commendable performances. Obviously I’m no publicist or public relations manager, but I would’ve advised her to choose commercial work carefully and sparingly. Instead, she’s been taking what seems like every brand opportunity that comes her way; she’s defended the choice because it helped her to buy a house. Now she owns a 13.5 million compound in Florida. But still. A quick google search estimates that Sweeney gets paid 800k per Euphoria episode, and I imagine her other acting gigs pay pretty well..

On one hand, the ad doesn’t seem very good. I’m no Don Draper, but I think I could’ve put something a touch more coherent together. As a woman, it just doesn’t make me want to buy the jeans. Sweeney is undoubtedly beautiful, but the garments look ill-fitting and uninteresting. The flat affect she adopts inspires absolutely no enthusiasm from me, and kind of undermines the sultry sexpot thing she tries to sell. Compare her to Sabrina Carpenter, the other blonde bombshell of the hour. Carpenter is campy and coquettish, there is a slyness, a wink and a nudge. Sweeney seems to try to emulate this, and at least for me, it very rarely lands.

On the other hand, the entire point of an ad is to attract attention, and American Eagle certainly did that. Companies harness outrage culture by purposefully incorporating problematic slants that can technically be hand-waved away after the fact. Do I think that the original idea of “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans/genes” was proffered with only the intention to allude to her figure? Yes. Do I also think that as they bandied ideas about, they considered the fact that it could be interpreted as promoting white supremacy? Absolutely. I just can’t fathom a room of professionals in marketing not considering that would be the case. They knew how it could be picked up, and they decided to go with it anyways.But if we decide to look the other way, and not critique for the sake of drawing attention to unsavory practices, surely they’ll just continue. And a company making the choice to imply eugenics in our current political climate for the sake of cashing in on disarray is something that shouldn’t be ignored.

Matters haven’t been helped by the fact that Sweeney has since been revealed as a Republican. Pop culture aficionados will know that she’s been a suspected MAGA-head since 2023, when pictures from her mother’s sixtieth hoedown birthday party surfaced. Attendees wore Make Sixty Great Again hats and Blue Lives Matter t-shirts. Sweeney pushed back against the reaction, insisting that the party was innocent fun and not politically charged.

But the Republican bombshell was dropped, and she’s made no moves to distance herself from the right. Trump has given Sweeney a glowing review online, saying, “Sydney Sweeney, a registered Republican, has the “HOTTEST” ad out there. It’s for American Eagle, and the jeans are flying off the shelves”. That much is true: a number of the products sold out in record time, presumably due to swathes of conservatives reacting to what they see as a liberal tantrum. Trump keeps petty celebrity drama in his mouth and uses it to muddy other conversations: it’s a ploy to have the discord reach such a crescendo that everyone drops out of it, exhausted and unmotivated to continue fighting.

I also only recently found out that one of the designs had a butterfly logo on it, intended to bring awareness to domestic violence awareness, with all of the proceeds going towards Crisis Text Line. A very worthy cause, and I am delighted they are receiving funds from the campaign. But if bringing awareness to the charity was another aim, they categorically failed. The bizarre optics, the sexually charged angles, the clumsy tagline, the lack of pretty much any narrative other than “Sydney Sweeney is hot!!!!!”, none of that recipe has any link to domestic abuse. And I also find it fundamentally strange and tasteless for a campaign intending to spotlight abuse made to appeal to the male gaze, and using a fifteen-year-old as a reference.

The ad was a clear throwback to Brooke Shields’ 1980 Calvin Klein jeans campaign, a troubling touchpoint Controversial even when it was aired, it’s been recontextualized as even more disturbing. Shields’ admitted in documentary Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields that she hadn’t understood the double entendres peppered throughout the campaign. Shields was hideously exploited as a child. Her sexualization and objectification was a twisted thing that was carried out in the public sphere. The Calvin Klein campaign was technically iconic, but was unforgivable manipulation of a minor. I believe American Eagle were aware of their sparking a eugenics row, I imagine they were equally prepared for this element of the ads to spark backlash. They chose indignation and scandal over sensitive and structured storytelling. It was lazy, it was a stunt. Unfortunately conservative rhetoric is alive and well and companies will profit if they court Republican favor. I guess you could still say it’s a net positive, because the chatter surrounding the ad drove sales, but referencing a minor’s erotic ad campaign while attempting to support domestic abuse charities seems to require the same amount of cognitive dissonance that casting scientologist Elizabeth Moss as the protagonist of The Handmaid’s Tale did.

Of course, when making judgement on a famous woman being sexualized, you always run the risk of being accused of shaming her for her sexuality. We saw the aforementioned Sabrina Carpenter receive backlash when the cover of her next album, Man’s Best Friend, was unveiled. In it, Carpenter crawls on the ground, a faceless man’s hand gripped in her signature curls. It prompted so much discourse that there was discourse about the discourse. One side found the cover debasing, reminiscent of abusive pornography, and utterly unempowering. Another crowd insisted that Carpenter was entitled to express her sexuality however she saw fit, and that the cover was obviously tongue-in-cheek. Commenters acknowledged Carpenter’s business savvy and her intention to make controversial waves. But Carpenter usually manages to wriggle out of things by being charismatic and much more clued-in than you’d expect.

But I don’t think it can be denied that it was made to show off every contour of Sweeney’s body in a highly voyeuristic manner. You can make sexy content that appeals to women, but Sweeney feels like she has no agency in the videos; she is just a monotone Barbie doll, wriggling in and out of denim and smouldering lazily at the camera. This was made for men, and we’re seeing more and more content like that. The Girl Boss feminism of the mid 2010s, was cringe but well-intentioned.

This flat, drawling, sexed-up act from Sweeney has been on our screens before. In June, Sweeney collaborated with Dr. Squatch Soap to produce a bar using her bathwater as one of its ingredients. Yes, you read that right. “Hello, you dirty little boys,” she says unenthusiastically from a bubble bath. “Are you interested in my body…wash?” Again, the campaign was effective: the product sold out. It seems she’s embraced centering men. Most people found the launch of the soap pathetically cringe and cheapening her brand, but a few optimists supported her for securing the bag by taking advantage of the guys who creep on her online. Some try to argue that by sexualizing themselves, Sweeney and Carpenter are getting there before the male gaze does; they are liberated by embracing their sexuality. But then, is it really a choice, when it’s made in a vacuum? And does the male gaze need to be centered so aggressively? Are they taking ownership of their desires and expressing agency or simply surrendering to the patriarchal status quo that they could be challenging?

Jo Ellison wrote a piece for the Financial Times offering up another viewpoint: that our preoccupation with Sweeney is a reflection of our own issues, and not hers. Comparing her to Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield Ellison points out that we choose to politicize Sweeney because she has natural assets. Ellison states “for a huge swath of the population a pneumatic blonde still embodies the ideal of womanhood”. I understand her point, and it was nice to have a differing perspective. I don’t quite think Sweeney is interesting enough to garner such a defence, but I partially agree. Putting Sweeney herself at the center of our critiques, and levelling all the criticism on her, is not conducive to change or a solution to media storms. Plus, people really are always far too eager to jump on a famous woman and pummel her down to a splinter. The issue really lies at the feet of large brands using strife to make sales, and governments that are propelling forward a movement that values white supremacy, female subjugation, and outdated ideals.

Toto under the rubble

A short story of friendship, life, and loss under occupation

Dr. Hassan Al-Qatraawi

This is the first of a series of creative fiction pieces featuring voices from Gaza.

Hello, dear reader,

You may not know the full truth about the war in Gaza. The war is not just blood here or a cry for help there, and then it ends. The war is far more than that, my friend. The war here resembles the first minutes of Doomsday, and in truth, there is not much difference between the war in Gaza and Judgment Day, except for one thing: on Judgment Day, everyone is preoccupied with themselves, while in this war, everyone is preoccupied only with their family. The martyrs here depart without farewell. Farewell, my dear, is a privilege of slow death. In Gaza, death is very quick. Fortunate is the one who gets a small farewell, for a small farewell delays the great longing.

I am writing these words to you while Gaza is being rained on by fire all night long, as if the sky has been pierced on the side of hell, pouring lava down upon us. The tragic thing about this war, my friend, is that death in the daytime is more bearable than death at night. In the daylight, the glow of the missile fades against the sun, and so we die without the terror of that final blinding flash. The sound itself is not so frightening, because the dead cannot hear it anyway. It is the living who strangely find comfort in hearing it, because the sound of a missile means you have survived this time. I know these are foolish interpretations of life, but they are the truth. The sound of the missile means we are still alive. This is how pitifully we justify our survival. Don’t be surprised!

What terrifies us is the missile’s light. The light comes in many forms, all of them wounding the heart before the eye. The red resembles the fresh blood that fills the streets, the windows, the screens. The orange resembles the flames burning beneath the pots of anguish in the tents of the displaced, replaying the scenes of tragedy every day. We prefer the missile that kills us without light. Lights in the world are usually beautiful and joyful, but in Gaza they are shameless and deadly.

Hello, my friend Toto,

I’m okay, in case you were wondering about me. Even if you don’t ask as often as you used to, that’s alright. What matters is that I remain loyal to you. I tell people your terrifying story that keeps me awake at night. I tell them about the filthy war that forced you to leave us and forced your soft body to remain buried under rubble for half a year.

Don’t worry, my friend. The sheikh told me your body will be restored and the villains won’t steal it. Be sure of that, and be sure of my love for you; you will never leave me. I recite the peace prayer over you whenever I pass by your noble grave. I remember your last laughter as you embraced me like those returning from the battlefront after a great victory, laughing and blessing my prayer. “I survived my illness, my friend,” you seem to say.

I remember my joy the day you were discharged from the hospital after your severe illness. That day, I felt a powerful tremor in my heart, like the tremor of a lover seeing an old flame. My happiness was overwhelming when I saw you regain some of your health, blended with your old laughter. You don’t know, my friend, how immense my joy was when I saw you laugh again, as if humanity was reborn from the womb of Christ, recited upon by Muhammad, and blessed by Abraham. I saw humanity in your laughter, Toto. If humanity isn’t in your laughter, then where else could it be?

Wait…dear reader, you don’t know Toto?

Alright then, let me introduce you:

Toto was my dear friend; he lived a humble life, owning nothing but his wide smile, which he shared with everyone without exception. It was his only weapon to survive the cruelty of this world. He gave it generously, without need or reason. His smile was like a visa into people’s hearts—simple, unfiltered. Toto knew nothing of envy, hatred, or malice. He was pure on the inside, like a snowball.

To Toto, the world was a chain of laughs. Those who laugh with him became his friends in an instant, and those who saddened him became his enemies forever. The world mourned when Toto was sad, and when he laughed, the whole universe laughed with him.

The day he left, the world’s joy faded, or so I felt.

Before the war, I never left his side. I would sit with him every night, reviving parts of my stifled laughter hidden deep within me. He alone could save it from drowning and breathe life into my soul. After he left, I realized that life needed Toto more than he needed it, for life without Toto’s heart is empty of humanity and beauty.

In our weeping neighborhood, he was the fruit of this life. The day he left, darkness fell as if the sun sank into the ocean. That’s when I understood what the final light meant.

Loved ones depart like a seesaw, one end lowers as the other rises. A missile falls, and the martyrs ascend. As they rise, they remember nothing but the final flash, thinking it’s the light that draws them into the sky. They depart, unaware of the magnitude of the tragedy they have left us on earth. Only we remain to know and feel it.

Just hours before Toto ascended to the heavens, we sat together, laughing loudly like at a farewell party. We said things that could’ve healed the sorrow in the world’s streets, and cured the lies choking its chest. Toto was the only person capable of killing gloom with joy and sadness with happiness

Believe me, the world becomes beautiful when Toto starts laughing. You feel like heaven has descended to earth.

It’s nearly impossible to find the right analogy to describe Toto, but let me try:

Toto is like the first sip of coffee on a magical morning.

He’s like a beloved song that everyone sings when the musician plays the first chorus.

Or perhaps the best comparison: he’s the cherry that adorns a fine piece of cake.

Every night we’d gather, and Toto would shower us with short bursts of raw humor, naturally delivered, never artificial. While others polish and perform their jokes, Toto’s comedy was fresh as morning dew. He’d say things spontaneously without fabrication, realistic comedy without acting, with a strange lightheartedness and charming laughter, in a deep but beautiful voice.

If he cried, I cried for him. If he laughed, I laughed with him. Toto was the compass of my emotions. I did what he pleased. Like a small piece of iron drawn to a magnet, I leaned where he leaned, and stayed where he stayed. He stole my feelings with the lightness of a skilled thief; everyone knew he was the only thief allowed to steal. He lifted people’s sadness to make them laugh. He spirited away people’s sorrows to make them laugh, and eased their sadness to make them happy. What a beautiful thief he is.

On the hundredth day of the war, the occupation killed him. They sent his tender soul, along with his smiling family, to the heavens. I was left alone, miserable and sad. He left quickly. As I told you, farewells are a luxury of slow death. Toto vanished in a flash, no time for goodbyes. They all left at once, a family trip to the sky.

I knew Toto well; I always saw it in his eyes. He feared death. He hated even hearing the word. Once, he asked his mother:

– “Will I die in the war?”

– She smiled and answered, “You will not die. You will live a long life.”

– He said fearfully, “But everyone dies.”

– She reassured him: “But you will live.”

Toto didn’t live long. Though his mother wasn’t lying; she meant he’d live long in heaven. My friend Toto left this earth to heal from the sickness of this world. He had Down Syndrome, the secret of his charm.

People with Down Syndrome are incredibly beautiful. There’s nothing wrong with them, only with those who judge them. Toto never knew why he left this world, nor what sin he paid for. But I know the reason well. Toto left because the occupation wanted to take revenge on joy with sadness, and on happiness with misery.

Toto was a friend to humanity, so they killed him.

That is the truth. The occupation’s job is to kill humanity and assassinate love.

Toto’s soul went to the heavens, and his body remains buried under the rubble.

If you ever pass through our neighborhood, you’ll find a big stone that reads:

“Toto is under the rubble.”

Please, send him your peace.

Read the story in original Arabic.

Don’t look away from our fight for justice in Indonesia

Appeal from an Indonesian activist

Navillera
30/08/2025

Dear friends,

An ojol (motorcycle taxi) driver was killed tonight in Jakarta after being struck by a police car during the protests. His death is more than an accident – it is the cost of living under unjust policies. I can’t stop thinking: it could have been me, it could have been any of us.

The protests erupted after Indonesia’s parliament approved a scandalous housing allowance of Rp 50 million (USD 3,100) per month for each MP, while the minimum wage in Jakarta is only Rp 5.4 million (USD 33O). How can we survive in a country where lawmakers grant themselves luxuries worth nearly ten times the salary of an ordinary worker?

The fury on the streets is not only about parliament. It is also about the reckless, cruel policies under President Prabowo Subianto:

Billions of dollars wasted on fighter jets and submarines while millions remain poor and hungry.
Rising food prices because of mismanaged imports, which are crushing families who already struggle to eat.
Authoritarian attempts to silence critics and shrink our democratic space.
Endless elitist perks for officials, while hospitals, schools, and public transport are left behind.

This is why people are angry. This is why people are afraid.

Tonight, when an ojol driver lost his life, I felt that fear in my bones. Because if the state refuses to protect us, and instead protects only its elites, then none of us are safe.

I am angry, furious, that our lives are treated as disposable. I am afraid that tomorrow more people will die simply for demanding dignity.

I ask you, my international friends, please don’t look away. Indonesia is not only facing a crisis of policy—it is facing a crisis of justice, of humanity, of democracy itself. Spread this awareness. Let the world know what is happening here.

Because silence will only mean more lives lost.“