Whatever political games are at play on this issue, efforts to frame LGBTQ people as a non-military threat and efforts to criminalise sexuality will only open more avenues for persecution, mostly for the underprivileged. It will likely be used as a pretext for security forces to further encroach on people’s privacy. In this scenario, everyone, not just the LGBTQ community, is at risk.

The trial of Andrie Yunus’ acid attackers has demonstrated that the military remains a strong political force, similar to what it was before reforms began in 1998, but with a different level of visibility.

10 November is Indonesia's Heroes’ Day, and  President Prabowo Subianto is a few steps closer to declaring his former father-in-law, the late autocrat president Soeharto, a national hero. It seems the government’s Council for Titles, Medals, and Honours, chaired by Minister of Culture Fadli Zon, may reframe Soeharto’s legacy as a corrupt, autocratic ruler with a more positive image by awarding him the hero title.

While the protests were, in the most part, authentic and spontaneous public events, the violence that ensued appears to be orchestrated – or at least manipulated - by powerful factions of the oligarchic elite.  

The new TNI law enhances legal justifications for the military’s dual function, but it does not inevitably lead to a return to military authoritarian rule under Prabowo. This is because attempts to centralise power in a single ruler inherently threaten to reduce the share of power and resources available to other contending political-economic elite players.

The controversy over the government’s refusal to pay civil servant lecturers their overdue performance allowance (tunjangan kinerja, or tukin) — which they are legally entitled to —certainly highlights the vulnerability of academic jobs in Indonesia. But it also exposes how politics and bureaucracy are undermining real reform of the country’s higher education system.

There are concerns Prabowo's approach will push reform away from ‘rule of law’ towards ‘rule by law’ because of his preference for enforcing order rather than the law, demonstrated by the long list of human rights abuses he is alleged to have committed in the past. Their concerns are valid, but the problem is bigger than Prabowo.

Seizing on the revolutionary fervour of Indonesian Independence Day, workers from public and private universities in Indonesia declared the establishment of the Campus Workers Union (SPK)  on 17 August 2023. But can a new academic union actually reform university management in Indonesia? And what challenges will this new union need to overcome to defend the interests of campus workers?