Hanaa Septiana, Jakarta – Indonesian Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Brian Yuliarto, responded to the police's seizure of books as evidence from students and activists who were arrested during a protest that resulted in riots at the end of last August. Brian hopes that students will read books in accordance with the regulations.
Brian said that students should read books that align with national values. "Books must certainly comply with the regulations. If the books do not align with our nation and so on, we hope there are none of those," said Brian at Airlangga University, Thursday, September 25, 2025.
When asked if book restrictions also limit academic freedom, Brian declined to comment. However, Brian admitted that he will check the books seized by the police. "I have to check what the books are like? But so far, we have not evaluated those books," he said.
Previously, the police seized books belonging to a protester who was designated as a suspect in the case of the riots in East Java on August 29-30, 2025. "We also found reading books in the form of anarchist ideology from one of the suspects with the initials GLM, 24 years old," said the Director of the General Crime Detective (Dirreskrimum) of the East Java Regional Police, Commissioner Widi Atmoko, on Thursday, September 18, 2025.
The seized books were presented as evidence. There were five books seized, such as The Thought of Karl Marx by Franz Magnis Suseno, Anarchism by Emma Goldman, The Dictators' Stories by Jules Archer, What is Communist Anarchism by Alexander Berkman, and Guerrilla War Strategy by Che Guevara.
"For the evidence we secured, it includes 11 books of anarchist ideology, 42 stones, 10 hoodies, 18 cell phones, 9 motorcycles, and even stolen vests and shields," said Widi.
Previously, Herlambang Perdana Wiratraman, a lecturer from the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law at the Faculty of Law, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, stated that the seizure of anarchist books was carried out systematically. He suspected a command because the police detained many activists and students by seizing books as evidence for unreasonable accusations.
The seizure of books as police evidence, according to him, is absurd and illegal in law enforcement. According to him, the police's actions actually damage the common sense of citizens and undermine the constitutional mandate to build the nation's intelligence objectives. "It is an abusive and arbitrary form of police action," said Herlambang to Tempo, Wednesday, September 24, 2025.