Indonesia
Hundreds of university students returned to the streets on Friday to challenge President Prabowo Subianto’s spending priorities, arguing that costly flagship programs were weakening efforts to respond to mounting economic pressures.
Hundreds of students protest against fuel prices and the free nutritious meal program, which they consider to be a hotbed of corruption, in Jakarta on June 12, 2026. (AFP/Bay Ismoyo)
Hundreds of university students returned to the streets on Friday to challenge President Prabowo Subianto’s spending priorities, arguing that costly flagship programs are weakening efforts to respond to mounting economic pressures.Dubbed #MenujuIndonesiaBangkrut (Heading to Bankrupt Indonesia), the protest centered on five demands, including calls for the government to curb wasteful spending, lower fuel and staple food prices and halt the President’s multibillion-dollar free nutritious meal and Red and White Cooperatives programs.
On Friday afternoon, students from the University of Indonesia (UI), IPB University and the Jakarta State Polytechnic, and several other campuses marched toward the Hotel Indonesia (HI) traffic circle, only to be blocked several hundred meters from the landmark by lines of police and military personnel.
