Police and Military Block Student Protest March to Bundaran HI
A mass of students from the University of Indonesia (UI) Student Executive Board (BEM) alliance was blocked by Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI) and police personnel in front of the Thamrin Nine Ballroom building in Central Jakarta on Friday, 12 June 2026. They were prevented from continuing their march to the Bundaran Hotel Indonesia (HI) roundabout to stage a protest titled ‘Towards a Bankrupt Indonesia’.
Tempo observed at the scene that hundreds of students arrived in front of the Thamrin Nine Ballroom at around 3.10 p.m. Western Indonesian Time. They had walked from the Semanggi area after the buses they were travelling on were not permitted to proceed to Bundaran HI.
Several TNI and police personnel formed a barricade blocking access to Bundaran HI. As a result, the crowd could not continue their journey. ‘Open up, open up,’ the protesters shouted.
The Greater Jakarta Metropolitan Regional Police (Polda Metro Jaya) asserted that Bundaran HI is not a location designated for protest activities. Therefore, the police blocked the student alliance. Polda Metro Jaya Head of Public Relations, Senior Commissioner Budi Hermanto, stated that Bundaran HI is a centre of public activity and one of the capital’s key economic points.
According to him, this condition is the reason demonstrations cannot be held at that location. ‘We understand that the area around Bundaran HI is not a place to express aspirations,’ Budi said in a written statement on Friday, 12 June 2026.
Polda Metro Jaya requested the students relocate the planned protest from Bundaran HI. Police offered several alternative locations, such as the Arjuna Wijaya Statue (Patung Kuda) area and the front of the MPR/DPR/DPD parliamentary complex.
Tempo contacted TNI Head of Information Centre, Major General Muhammad Natsir, regarding the blockade. However, as of the writing of this report, he had not provided a response.
On a separate occasion, UI BEM Chairperson Yatalathof Ma’shum Imawan said more than 1,000 students were planned to join the protest. They departed from the UI Campus in Depok using several buses divided into multiple batches.
According to Yatalathof, police authorities did not permit the students to hold the protest at Bundaran HI and requested the demonstration be moved to the front of the DPR Building. ‘But we refused. We are currently still trying to hold the protest at Bundaran HI,’ Yatalathof said on Friday, 12 June 2026.
He stated that the choice of Bundaran HI as the protest location symbolises the students’ distrust of the government. For this reason, they deliberately did not choose the Presidential Palace as the demonstration point.
The students also refused to protest at the parliamentary complex. According to Yatalathof, conveying aspirations to the DPR will not change the situation because the DPR now represents the government’s interests more. ‘Now they are merely an administrative counter for the executive,’ he said.
The alliance declaring participation in this protest includes BEM se-UI, consisting of BEM UI and 15 faculty BEMs, BEM KM IPB, BEM PNJ, BEM Universitas Pancasila, the Gunadarma BEM Alliance, FMN Pusat, FMN UI, Pembebasan, and Semar UI.
During the protest, the students carried five main demands: stopping the waste of the state budget (APBN), lowering the prices of staple goods and fuel, halting the Free Nutritious Meal Programme (MBG), cancelling the construction of the Merah Putih Village Cooperatives, and ending militarism in the civilian sphere. Additionally, they urged President Prabowo to acknowledge the government’s mistakes.