{
    "success": true,
    "data": {
        "id": 1808903,
        "msgid": "ugm-students-explain-why-they-stormed-discussion-event-take-officials-to-the-street-1781740216",
        "date": "2026-06-18 06:01:05",
        "title": "UGM Students Explain Why They Stormed Discussion Event: 'Take Officials to the Street'",
        "author": "",
        "source": "DETIK_JOGJA",
        "tags": "",
        "topic": "Politics",
        "summary": "Students from Gadjah Mada University (UGM) have clarified their disruption of a campus discussion attended by three senior government officials, stating they intended to bring the officials into a neutral public space to question their allegiance to the people. The protest, which led to the officials' evacuation and a tense standoff, was described as a collective expression of frustration over perceived government oppression and a lack of genuine dialogue. The students issued four demands, including the release of political prisoners and the withdrawal of the military from civilian spaces, and warned that failure to meet them would signify the death of democracy.",
        "content": "<p>Students from Gadjah Mada University (UGM) have spoken out about\ntheir reasons for storming a discussion event at the UGM Innovation and\nCreativity Centre (GIK) on Monday evening (15\/6). The students stated\nthey wanted to take the officials attending the event to the street, a\nneutral space, to question their allegiance to the people. The event\nthat evening was attended by the Minister of Agrarian Affairs and\nSpatial Planning\/National Land Agency, Nusron Wahid; Deputy Minister of\nAgriculture, Sudaryono; and Head of the Agency for the Acceleration of\nPoverty Alleviation, Budiman Sudjatmiko. The event initially proceeded\nsmoothly. Then, a number of students suddenly climbed onto the stage and\nunfurled protest banners. The situation escalated after more people\njoined those on stage, and the three officials were eventually\nevacuated. However, hundreds of students blocked them outside the UGM\nGIK. Nusron Wahid and Sudaryono briefly sat down to dialogue with the\ncrowd, but the talks reached a deadlock. As both men left the location\nunder escort, a shoving match occurred between students and security\npersonnel. UGM student spokesperson Gladwin said the action was carried\nout collectively. They stated that what happened during the protest was\na form of expression of disappointment with a government that has\nrepeatedly oppressed the people. \u201cEssentially, we collectively went\nthere because we were restless, and whatever happened there is a form of\nour expression,\u201d Gladwin said during a press conference and reading of\nthe UGM students\u2019 statement of position at Balairung on Wednesday\n(17\/6\/2026). He dismissed the notion that the students had intended to\ndisband the discussion from the outset. According to him, the students\ncame to convey their aspirations and criticism to the officials present\nat the forum. \u201cIt is a form of expression that we consider valid because\nof the oppression that the people have felt, and we have felt, all this\ntime. So what happened there, whether it is called a disruption or\nanything else, what needs to be emphasised is that yesterday\u2019s\nexpression occurred because of the government\u2019s lack of allegiance to\nthe people that has been ongoing,\u201d he asserted. Sarah, one of the UGM\nstudent representatives, while reading the chronology of events, said\nthe students\u2019 arrival stemmed from a post about the state officials\u2019\nvisit to UGM accompanied by pro-government media. \u201cWe, who were already\nfed up, then gathered and refused to stay silent. After one by one we\nentered the GIK, our suspicion that this forum was not a genuine\ndiscussion forum was increasingly affirmed,\u201d she said. \u201cThe event\nlabelled as a \u2018discussion\u2019 platform turned out to be merely a showcase\nfor \u2018government achievements\u2019 with a clearly unequal share of speaking\ntime to produce substantive correspondence,\u201d she added. Sarah stated\nthat the anger at the GIK was triggered by many things, such as the\nincreasingly plummeting Rupiah exchange rate, the rise in non-subsidised\nfuel prices feared to cause a domino effect, and the wave of layoffs\nsweeping tens of thousands of workers. \u201cIt must be emphasised that UGM\nstudents are never anti-dialogue or anti-discussion. However, we\nearnestly ask our friends to explain to us how we can possibly have a\nsubstantive, solution-oriented, and equal discussion with government\nofficials who are clearly untrustworthy and do not side with the\npeople,\u201d she said. Another UGM student representative, Mesa, said that\nin the context of democracy, discussions should not be held in a\npolitical space conditioned by the ruling power, but rather in a space\nbased on the principle of equal interests and allegiance to the people.\n\u201cTherefore, our first instinct was to take those state officials to the\nstreet; to a space not conditioned by the ruling power, and then\nquestion their allegiance,\u201d Mesa said. With all the facts clearly\nevident, Mesa said the answers they gave showed their lack of allegiance\nto the people. \u201cInstead of admitting mistakes, they actually asked one\nof the protesters to see the conditions in Papua firsthand. We do not\nwant the conditions in Papua to be seen only by a handful of us,\u201d he\nsaid. \u201cIf it is true that there is no oppression and violence against\nthe people in Papua, then show it to the entire Indonesian public. Show\nthis by opening the widest possible access for the press to cover\nconditions in Papua and withdraw all military troops that have been\nspreading terror among the people,\u201d he continued. Therefore, if the\ngovernment truly wants to uphold democratic principles, they challenge\nthe government to prove it. They demand the government prove it starting\nfrom the most basic thing, by guaranteeing the security of civilian\nspaces for voicing opinions. The UGM students also conveyed the\nfollowing demands to the government: Free all political prisoners and\ngrant amnesty to comrades who have been criminalised; Stop restricting\ndemonstrations, as happened with UI students at the HI roundabout;\nWithdraw the military from civilian spaces and revoke the TNI Law and\nthe POLRI Law; Stop the criminalisation of activists. \u201cIf these demands\ncannot be met, then it is clear to us that the government has never and\nwill never side with the people, so that democracy itself has\nessentially died. Therefore, the only way out of this situation is to\nreclaim power into the hands of the people by any means necessary to\nrestore civilian supremacy,\u201d they asserted. In this regard, they also\nbelieve that academics should show a true intellectual stance by\ndiscussing the facts as they are. The students urged UGM Rector Ova\nEmilia, who represents UGM as an academic institution, to show her\nstance and allegiance to the facts that are already clearly evident.\n\u201cAffirm that UGM no longer trusts the Prabowo-Gibran administration,\nwhich has repeatedly and clearly shown its lack of allegiance to the\npeople, and affirm that.\u201d<\/p>",
        "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/ugm-students-explain-why-they-stormed-discussion-event-take-officials-to-the-street-1781740216",
        "image": ""
    },
    "sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
    "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}