Aulia Masna<p>Mass protests across 14 Indonesian cities rejecting the newly passed military legislation allowing active members to hold civilian government and private sector positions. Mass violence by cops and the military against protesters, illegal seizure of ambulance by the police, members of parliament clashing with protesters, and Jakarta is about to unleash its latest wave of protests tomorrow outside of the parliament building.</p><p>This is building up to match the 1998 anti government civil disobedience crisis. Hopefully it won’t devolve into mass riots, waves of racial violence, and private property looting and destruction like it did back then. </p><p>The state of the economy isn’t great either despite statements from the President and Ministers. Since the President slashed the national budget to fund the free school meal program and the sovereign fund Danantara (more than $20 billion each), government projects and programs have been cut, contractors are struggling, and consumer spending collapsed. </p><p>We also have had mass layoffs in the tens of thousands across various industries including manufacturing, since January. Those jobs aren’t coming back.</p><p>This country is not doing okay.</p><p><a href="https://mementomori.social/tags/TootSEA" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>TootSEA</span></a> <a href="https://mementomori.social/tags/Indonesia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Indonesia</span></a> <a href="https://mementomori.social/tags/IndonesiaGelap" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>IndonesiaGelap</span></a></p>