Crowds in East Kalimantan Stage Mass Protest, Governor Responds After Failing to Appear
The East Kalimantan People’s Alliance staged the 21 April Action at the East Kalimantan DPRD building and the governor’s office. The protest, which demanded an audit of all provincial government policies, was marked by various dynamics.
Waves of crowds from various student and community elements began arriving to fill the area in front of the East Kalimantan DPRD office since Tuesday morning (21/4/2026). The crowd initially began the action at the DPRD building with students climbing a large billboard to remove a banner featuring the DPRD Chairman and members.
In its place, they unfurled homemade banners containing three main demands: an audit of all East Kalimantan provincial government policies, a halt to KKN practices, and pressure for the DPRD to fully carry out its oversight function.
Not stopping there, after delivering speeches at the DPRD, the crowd proceeded with a long march to the East Kalimantan governor’s office to demand direct promises from the executive.
Governor’s Response
East Kalimantan Governor Rudy Mas’ud finally responded to the action via a video on his personal Instagram account and that of the provincial government. Rudy expressed his appreciation for the ongoing action. He also asked all elements to continue serving as social controls on government performance.
“We express our thanks to all parties, student brothers and sisters, community layers, TNI, Police who maintained security, a conducive situation until the end of the aspiration delivery in Bumi Etam,” said Rudy as seen in the video viewed by detikKalimantan on Wednesday (22/4/2026).
Rudy hopes that students and the public continue to play a role as supervisors of government operations. According to him, social control is needed to drive improvements and evaluations of local government performance.
“We very much hope that student brothers and sisters, the public, all layers, can always be our eyes and ears in carrying out improvements and evaluations of the East Kalimantan Provincial Government’s performance,” he added.
Rudy stated that the future of East Kalimantan is also determined by the role of the younger generation and the public in guiding policies. He assessed that the input delivered in the action holds important value for the government.
“Today’s input is very meaningful and very classy,” he said.