Death penalty for corruption? Anger boils over as Indonesia’s free meals scheme becomes symbol of political rot

JAKARTA, Aug 28 — Hundreds of Indonesians marched on parliament on Thursday to demand harsher penalties for corrupt officials in a country historically blighted by graft in its public and private sectors.

Riot police kept the protesters outside the closed gates of the legislature, where they paraded a metres-long flag in the red-and-white national colours and hung a banner reading: “The corrupt get rich while the people suffer.”

Some tried fruitlessly to storm the gate, while others threw trash and random objects over it into the grounds of the legislature.

Jakarta police said earlier it had deployed 18,500 officers to secure the streets of the capital at a time when public anger has been rising over economic hardship and growing inequality.

“What we need is for the government to wake up,” demonstrator Dian Purmomo, a 50-year-old author, told AFP.

“They must provide what the people need, not force programmes we all know will only benefit them.”

The demonstrators want parliament to pass a bill, which has been before it since 2008, to allow for the seizure of the assets of corrupt officials – for whom some at Thursday’s rally want the death penalty.

They also demand an end to the government’s costly free school meals programme – a signature project of President Prabowo Subianto that has been mired in allegations of graft and marred by mass food poisonings.

“In the past year, things have been getting worse,” Dian said.

“Corruption is rampant... nobody is stopping it. No matter how much people protest, the free meals scheme keeps going.”

Indonesia’s House of Representatives deputy speakers Cucun Ahmad Syamsurijal (left), Sufmi Dasco Ahmad (centre) and Saan Mustofa (right) listen to protesters’ grievances at the parliament building in Jakarta on August 27, 2026, following a demonstration demanding an asset forfeiture law for corrupt officials. — AFP pic

‘Provocateurs’ 

Thursday’s action came almost exactly a year after nationwide protests erupted into riots in which a dozen people were killed and thousands arrested.

Indonesia’s biggest unrest since Prabowo took office in 2024 came last August and September, sparked by anger over lavish perks for lawmakers.

Jakarta police said they had detained 65 people ahead of Thursday’s march on suspicion of being “provocateurs”.

Some allegedly had Molotov cocktails.

Southeast Asia’s biggest economy has long battled corruption despite strengthening anti-graft laws, creating special investigative commissions and nabbing several high-profile suspects.

Indonesia scored a low 34 out of 100 on watchdog Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index for 2025.

Graft has been a rallying cry for protesters angry about rising living costs as Indonesia and the region reeled from higher oil prices caused by the Middle East war.

Protests erupted in several cities in June after the government hiked the price of non-subsidised gasoline by a third to alleviate budget pressures.

Fuel is heavily subsidised in Indonesia. Southeast Asia’s largest economy is an oil producer but is nevertheless a net importer. — AFP