Ilona Estherina, Jakarta – Forum Indonesia for Budget Transparency (Fitra) criticized the massive budget allocated for the procurement of crowd control equipment by authorities, noting that between 2021 and 2025, the total allocation reached Rp 2.6 trillion.
According to Fitra's data, the largest portion of the budget, amounting to Rp1.1 trillion, was spent on tear gas, launchers, and protective masks. Batons made up Rp1.02 trillion, while other items such as rubber bullets totaled Rp50 billion. An additional Rp200 billion was allocated for tactical vehicles (rantis) used for crowd dispersal.
These tools are widely recognized as repressive instruments in managing demonstrations. Gurnadi Ridwan, a researcher at Fitra's National Secretariat, emphasized the need for a full evaluation of the budget.
He warned that such substantial allocations pose risks to citizen safety and undermine both the quality of law enforcement and democracy.
"It is evident that the repeated use of repressive tools can cause casualties, and in some cases, fatalities," Gurnadi said in an official statement on Friday, August 29, 2025.
Fitra noted that as spending on repressive instruments rises, violent actions by authorities against demonstrators tend to become more frequent. Instead of increasing the budget for tear gas, the state should focus on strengthening law enforcement capacity through humanistic, dialogical, and persuasive methods in handling protests.
Although the government reduced funding for tear gas after the Kanjuruhan Stadium incident in Malang, East Java in 2022, Fitra highlighted that the budget for batons actually increased, totaling Rp 1 trillion from 2021 to 2025.
Additional expenditures included tear gas drones worth Rp18.9 billion and rubber bullets or pepper projectiles totaling Rp49.9 billion in 2022.
"State budgets should protect the people, not instill fear, let alone silence them. Democracy cannot thrive in an atmosphere of fear," Gurnadi said.
Fitra researcher Gulfino Guevarra also criticized the police's use of repressive tools such as beatings, tear gas, and rubber bullets. "Even more alarming is when authorities ram and run over citizens, under the guise of maintaining order and security," he said on Friday, August 29, 2025.
Public outrage erupted after a tactical vehicle of the Police's Mobile Brigade (Brimob) ran over an online motorcycle taxi (ojol) driver during a demonstration on Thursday, August 28, 2025. The incident took place amid protests by labor and workers' unions at the House of Representatives (DPR) building.
The movement continues today. The Executive Board of Student Organizations alliance called for coordinated demonstrations at both the national police headquarters (Polri) and regional police offices (Polda) across Indonesia, starting at 01:00 PM.
"Today we take to the streets not only to reject policies that harm the people but also to oppose the anarchic actions of authorities, who should protect citizens but instead become oppressors, crushing their own people," reads a call posted on Instagram by @bemsi.official.