Nusron Wahid Responds After UGM Discussion Disrupted by Students
A discussion featuring government officials at Gadjah Mada University (UGM) ended in chaos after being stormed by students. Minister of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/Head of the National Land Agency Nusron Wahid, who was one of the speakers, has spoken out about the incident.
The discussion, which included Nusron Wahid, Head of the Poverty Alleviation Acceleration Agency Budiman Sudjatmiko, and Deputy Minister of Agriculture Sudaryono, was held at the UGM Innovation and Creativity Centre on Monday evening (15/6).
“We came at the invitation of the organisers, with a complete permit letter from the rectorate. We were ready to engage in dialogue with anyone, with the academic community, on any topic, because we in government have prepared ourselves to be bullied, ready to be insulted in front of anyone, as that is the consequence of holding office,” Nusron said in a post on his personal Instagram account, as quoted by detikNews on Tuesday (16/6/2026). Nusron permitted his statement about the UGM discussion to be quoted from his Instagram post.
According to him, the discussion initially proceeded smoothly. However, the situation heated up when a number of individuals, whom he deemed unprepared for dialogue, intervened.
“But it turned out that tonight, fate had other plans. There was a group of people who are undemocratic, who were not ready for dialogue, not ready for democracy, and not ready to accept an exchange of ideas, who prioritised imposing their will and violence. We deeply regret this,” Nusron said.
“A forum that should have been a good dialogue, as happens on other campuses. There was no motivation to suppress, but we were actually ready to be criticised. If there was something wrong, we were ready to correct it; if there was input, we would follow it up. But it was thwarted by that group of people,” he continued.
Nusron then called on all parties to practise democracy in a civilised manner. He stated he is ready to continue attending similar dialogues in the future.
“I think, let us uphold democracy in a civilised way. Therefore, discussion spaces and forums for debate must not be closed, and there must not be a monologue that creates a single opinion from certain groups only. We are ready to serve various invitations, if there are any, to exchange data and arguments. But tonight, we truly regret it, though we do not regret coming,” he said.
Earlier, a mass of students stormed the discussion event featuring three state officials at the UGM Gelanggang Inovasi dan Kreativitas (GIK) on Monday evening. Initially, the discussion ran smoothly. However, shortly afterwards, a number of students climbed onto the stage and unfurled banners rejecting the speakers. The situation escalated until the discussion was halted and plastic cups were thrown. The three officials were then evacuated, but hundreds of students blocked them outside the GIK. Nusron Wahid and Sudaryono briefly engaged in dialogue with the crowd, but the talks reached a deadlock. As the two left the location under escort, a scuffle involving pushing and shoving occurred between students and security personnel.
A representative of the UGM Student Union (SEMA), Mesa, said the action was a form of criticism of the government. They argued that as long as the government considers criticism a disturbance, the officials are unfit to speak about Pancasila. “They are not fit to talk about Pancasila while Indonesia silences the people’s voice, while they consider criticism a disturbance, while they continue to waste public money on useless programmes, the MBG programme, Kopdes Merah Putih, and many other things happening now,” Mesa said.