One Year On: People's Movement Supporting Anies Baswedan Seeks to Become Political Party

JAKARTA – The People’s Movement (Gerakan Rakyat), a civil society organisation known as a support group for Anies Baswedan, has reached its first anniversary. The organisation now seeks to transform into a political party.

On 27 February 2025, the group was formally declared as a civil society organisation at the Jakarta Initiative Office in South Jakarta, although it had reportedly begun operations since November 2023.

Gerakan Rakyat was founded and is chaired by Sahrin Hamid, who served as Anies Baswedan’s spokesperson during the 2024 presidential election campaign when Anies was a presidential candidate.

Anies attended the declaration ceremony one year ago. The group selected orange as its official colour.

Sahrin Hamid became the General Chairman of Gerakan Rakyat Party, whilst Anies became its inspiration figure.

Gerakan Rakyat subsequently held celebrations marking its first anniversary. Anies commented on the occasion.

“The journey is still long,” Anies said while attending the commemoration event for Gerakan Rakyat’s first anniversary on Friday, 27 February 2026.

Anies praised the civil society organisation’s achievements over one year, noting that it had developed networks throughout Indonesia and was not merely a symbolic presence in the capital.

“Most importantly, this civil society organisation is not merely a name plate in Jakarta, but has networks across all regions of Indonesia. That is the most significant achievement over the past year,” Anies said.

The former Jakarta governor also expressed appreciation to all officials and members of Gerakan Rakyat at various levels.

Regarding its structure, Sahrin explained that the organisation has so far only established what it calls a territorial structure. “We have only the Central Leadership Council, Regional Leadership Council, District Leadership Council, and Branch Leadership Council or District-level Leadership Council,” Sahrin said.

“So we have not yet developed any other structures. We have only prepared the structure for reporting to the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, for example,” Sahrin added.

According to him, only two structural elements have been prepared at the central level so far.

“We have only the Central Leadership Council. The Central Leadership Council, with nothing else yet, plus the Party Court. Only two structural elements have been proposed. Because these two are required by law. So what we have prepared are the Central Leadership Council and the Party Court. That’s two,” Sahrin stated.