Academia
From weaponized algorithms to creeping militarism, an urgent blueprint for exposing authoritarian power and defending civic freedom before it is too late.
University of Indonesia (UI) students take part in a protest against wasteful state budget spending, President Prabowo Subianto's flagship programs and expanded military roles in civilian affairs in Central Jakarta, on Aug. 18, 2026. (Reuters/Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana)
Speaking in remembrance of poet and government critic Wiji Thukul at Gramedia on Aug. 16, I deliberately urged fellow citizens to unite against Indonesia’s gradual slide toward fascism.The warning signs are already here at home. As this ideology creeps into everyday life, staying on the sidelines is no longer an option. We have an urgent duty to raise our voices in civil resistance against an encroaching authoritarian threat.
We urgently need a clear, unyielding anti-fascist playbook designed to dismantle the eight defining pillars of fascism: militarism, tyranny, propaganda, division, anti-intellectualism, personality cult, technofascism and post-truth.
