Megawati Asks Prabowo to Prove PDIP's Role in 2025 Protests
PDIP Chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri has refuted accusations that the bull party was behind the unrest during the wave of August 2025 demonstrations. Megawati directly denied the allegations to President Prabowo Subianto, who had also heard suspicions of PDIP’s role in last year’s riots.
The fifth president claimed to have received initial information from a PDIP lawyer. She shared this story while delivering a speech at the senate session for the inauguration of Professor Emeritus Arief Hidayat at Borobudur University, Jakarta, on Saturday, 2 May 2026.
“I don’t agree if there are demonstrations. Well, last August, suddenly there were some, and our lawyer said that it was being pinned on our party,” said Megawati on Saturday, as monitored from the Borobudur University TV YouTube channel.
After that, Megawati said she asked Prabowo to show what evidence led to the conclusion that PDIP was behind last year’s unrest. She did not accept PDIP being accused like that just based on circulating information.
“I met with Mr Prabowo, I said to him, ‘Sir, if it’s really us, just show the evidence first, it’s easy. We’re both party chairmen.’ Don’t do that. Just saying that behind it is red,” said the eighth vice president.
Megawati then touched on the matter of Indonesian unity, which should emulate Pancasila values and respect differences even if in different groups, as in the motto Bhinneka Tunggal Ika. She wondered whether political party elites had forgotten all that.
“The one that says Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, the one that says we must work together, the one that says Pancasila, huh? Just to bring down someone or their group because they can’t be the same, what kind of country have we become? Please tell me,” she said.
The strained relationship between Megawati and Prabowo due to suspicions that PDIP orchestrated the demonstrations was covered in Tempo magazine’s 14 September 2026 edition. After public anger heated up due to the death of Affan Kurniawan, Prabowo gathered party chairmen at the Presidential Palace, Jakarta, on 31 August 2025.
At that time, Prabowo also met with Megawati and spoke one-on-one. Tempo heard that Prabowo received information about PDIP’s involvement in the demonstration unrest.
This accusation emerged after DPR member from the PDIP faction Adian Napitupulu paid respects to Affan’s body at RSCM after he was run over by a Brimob tactical vehicle on 28 August 2025. PDIP Secretary General Hasto Kristiyanto denied that PDIP was riding the demonstration unrest. The full article can be read here.