Radio War Nerd EP #547 — Indonesia Riots, Prabowo & 1998, feat. Avery
Guest: Avery
Recorded: September 4, 2025
We're joined by Avery, one of the stars in the RWN facebook community, to make sense of Indonesia's riots, Prabowo, and links to the 1998 riots during the Asian financial crisis...
Total time: 1:06:11
Direct link to this episode's mp3 here
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Comments (18)
I also find Indonesia confusing. This was a useful episode.
I love that story about the China Shinkansen technology transfer, if they had American interests in their transportation infra they'd need to demolish one million homes to make a 20 lane wide highway
Great episode, a few notes: 1. I think it needs to really be stressed that Prabowo had faced a huge amount of protests basically immediately since he took office over a very wide number of issues (normalization with Israel, the occupation of west papua, his proposal to end direct elections of provincial governors, labor issues etc) so in a sense this most recent wave of rioting is more just general anger boiling over and exploding than it is over any one specific issue. 2. I agree with Avery that Indonesian parties generally arent ideological (with a few exceptions like the PKS or the Labour Party) but I wouldn’t say that they are totally formless, rather they’re generally machines built around individuals (ie: Prabowo and Gerindra), identity or regional groups or communal organizations (ie: PKB and NU) 3. To answer John, yes the issue of transportation and housing prices are incredibly influential in Jakarta, and were probably the biggest reason why Ahok lost his governorship bid in 2017. I also think Avery is a bit too generous to Ahok, who did hyper develop and gentrify Jakarta very quickly and it led to an enormous amount of displacement (which Ahok was kind of an asshole about). Also worth noting he wasn’t elected, he was promoted to govern as jokowis vice governor when jokowi became president 4. It’s worth noting that jokowi didnt “bring Prabowo into his cabinet” so much as Prabowo muscled his way into the cabinet by siccing rioters into Jakarta until jokowi gave him a ministers position 5. The police and military in Indonesia have very bad and territorial relations
Also want to note that I agree with Avery that I don’t think Suharto’s downfall was masterminded by Prabowo. Anti Chinese he was likely partially behind but Prabowo actually was pretty hated by large parts of the military establishment then and it was only his connections to Suharto at the time that gave him immunity from accountability or oversight within the TNI.
I just finished Pramoedya Ananta Toer's Buru Quartet, and would love more episodes on Indonesia if you can. It's definitely a blindspot for westerners.
Well, not a blind spot for the empire...
Australian citizens only know Bali, and even then its just Kuta, Nusa Dua, Ubud, the tourist locations. They have no idea, wouldnt know where Java is, and are generally negative toward muslims in Australia. I remember going to Indonesia in the 90's and our friend taking us anywhere but the tourist places. I cant imagine any Australian dealing with a 5AM prayer call, squat toilets, or military trucks full of armed soldiers pulling up to a market and the stall owners crowding around to sell them food. The Australian Govt and Indonesia is a very different thing. Still shitty, but different.
Would love a link to that Japan article you mention at the start!
The One Piece version of the Jolly Roger is also being flown in Nepal where protesters just overthrew the government. I imagine that’s probably the next episode.
Indeed, Brian Berletic has been using that and similar points to say it's National Endowment for Democracy (NED) pushed, like Nepal ( and Serbia).
There was that news story last decade about the role London had in the mass murders in Indonesia, I have to assume they ordered the Aussies to help in some way
Nooooo my gold plated labubu
Great stuff, as a Sydneysider I would love more Indonesia content. Heading to Java in 5 weeks & will be catching up with some comrades in a labour rights NGO in Bandung, will be fascinated to hear their take on what's going on. These guys are currently having the asses sued off them by the peak body for the Indonesian asbestos industry - https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-06/lawsuit-against-activists-raising-concerns-of-asbestos-indonesia/105615308
Can very much co-sign that we need more Indonesia (and SEA generally) content. Have long been hoping RWN does an episode on West Papua, it’s badly needed
Didn’t Prabowo arrive late to SCO, acting like a giant swinging dick?
I see that he skipped SCO but attended China's military parade at the height of the protests. Just like with the Nine Dash Line he's committed to an inconsistent, muddled policy
On One Piece: history is a huge theme in One Piece and the biggest political themes are anti-genocide, anti-racism, and anti-slavery. So it’s “political” without being stuck to an explicit ideology, which helps with the popularity. The protagonist, Luffy, wants to be “King of the Pirates” so everyone in the world can live their dream. The antagonists are usually tyrants of some sort with one subplot involving “SMILE fruits” as a rather clever allegory for opium/opiate imperialism.
I might just check it out.