Should Demonstration Funding Be Transparent?
A video clip showing an alleged confession by a member of the Bung Karno University Student Executive Board (BEM) accepting a bribe has surfaced on social media. The university rectorate subsequently suspended their student status, including Muhammad Abdi Maludin, Chairman of the Faculty of Law’s Student Executive Board.
Vice Rector III Daniel Panda stated the decision was made after the rectorate directly received Abdi’s confession regarding a bribe amounting to Rp 20 million. Based on Abdi’s admission, he added, the bribe money was provided by an individual alumnus of the university’s Faculty of Law through police officers. The alumnus requested that the Student Executive Board refrain from demonstrating in the State Palace area.
Daniel mentioned there had been a request for students to relocate the demonstration to the front of the DPR, MPR, and DPD Complex. However, this request was rejected. BEM Universitas Bung Karno proceeded with the demonstration at the Patung Kuda area. “The money was still accepted. It was given in the early hours,” he said during a press conference in Central Jakarta on Tuesday, 23 June 2026.
During the demonstration titled “Tata Ulang Indonesia” (Reorganise Indonesia), representatives of BEM Universitas Bung Karno subsequently accepted an invitation for closed mediation with Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka.
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairman Deddy Sitorus urged Gibran to clarify the alleged bribe money received by several members of the Student Executive Board from the Faculty of Law and Faculty of Economics at Universitas Bung Karno. Deddy said Gibran must openly explain the alleged flow of money to the students. The member of Commission II of the House of Representatives also pressed Gibran for an explanation regarding the circumstances of the audience with UBK student representatives at the Vice Presidential Palace.
“It is impossible he does not know. But he needs to speak up,” Deddy said at the DPR Complex, Jakarta, on Tuesday, 23 June 2026. Vice President’s Special Staff member Tina Talisa had not responded to a request for comment sent by Tempo via WhatsApp on Wednesday, 24 June 2026.
Researcher from the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (FITRA), an organisation monitoring the state budgeting process, Siska Barimbing explained that demonstration funding is typically raised through crowdfunding from the alliances or organisations staging the action. Siska stated that demonstration funding never comes from the State Budget (APBN) or regional budgets.
The transparency of demonstration budgets depends on the agreed mechanism of the alliance or organisation, as it does not originate from public funds. Therefore, Siska said, if it is not from public funds, the demonstration funds are accounted for openly within the internal alliance or organisation.
“For public funds, the allocation rules are clear. There is no nomenclature for funding protests,” Siska said on Wednesday, 24 June 2026. She stated that institutions suspected of funding demonstrations must indeed be questioned and provide direct explanations.