A growing protest movement

On 28 March, in downtime Jakarta across from the Sarinah department store, an unlikely group of protesters gathered holding signs and making speeches. The crowd largely consisted of middleclass women of various ages, gathered under the name ‘Suara Ibu Indonesia’ (Voices of Indonesian Mothers). For the organisers, the choice of name and location for their protest was deliberately designed to evoke a moment in Indonesia’s past, now 27 years ago, when in the final months of the autocratic Suharto regime an economic and political crisis saw student protests met with deadly violence at the hands of the military and police. Then a group called Suara Ibu Peduli (Voices of Concerned Mothers, SIP), tapped into growing concern within wider society about the state of their country.

In late March 2025, as student protests at campuses and in front of law offices were once again met with violence by state law enforcement, the women who gathered in downtown Jakarta expressed their fear of a return to unbridled militarism and a contempt for democracy. The revision of the Military (TNI) Law a few weeks earlier, which opens the door for active military figures to occupy more and key positions in the government and bureaucracy, appears to have sparked a broadening of the growing protest movement. As one of the original SIP organisers, Karlina Supelli was quoted as saying, “If mothers have joined the protests, this means that the situation has become critical.”

What compelled the Suara Ibu Indonesia protesters to go to the streets now? What are the urgent concerns of activists and students amid a time they describe as ‘Indonesia Gelap’? Can such opposition to the newly installed Prabowo government be sustained for the long haul?

In this week's episode Jemma chats with Olin Montiero, a feminist activist, researcher, writer, consultant and producer. Olin has been working for the women 's movement since the 1990s and was a member of the Suara Ibu Peduli movement in 1998. She has founded several women organisations in Indonesia, including the network Peace Women Across the Globe Indonesia and ArtsforWomen, connecting women activists, artists, art workers and cultural workers for a feminist collaborative space. Olin facilitates feminist networks Jagat Setara (Online platform feminist discussion), Woke Asia Feminist (young feminist in Asia network), and FeministArt Community (a new young people discussion on art creativity and feminism).

In 2025, the Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Dr Jemma Purdey from the Australia-Indonesia Centre, Dr Jacqui Baker from Murdoch University, Dr Elisabeth Kramer from the University of New South Wales and Tito Ambyo from RMIT.

Image: Olin Monteiro