UI Student Executive Board Rejects Police Directive to Protest at DPR

A mass of students from the University of Indonesia (UI) Student Executive Board (BEM) alliance remains blocked by police in the Semanggi and Senayan areas of Central Jakarta on Friday, 12 June 2026. They planned to stage a ‘Towards a Bankrupt Indonesia’ protest at the Bundaran HI roundabout on Friday afternoon. BEM UI Chairman Yatalathof Ma’shum Imawan stated that more than 1,000 students would participate in the demonstration. The crowd departed from the UI Campus in Depok using several buses divided into 16 groups. However, police authorities did not permit the protest to be held at Bundaran HI and requested the students concentrate their demonstration in front of the DPR Building. The students rejected this directive. “We are still trying to ensure the protest can be held at Bundaran HI,” Yatalathof said in the Bundaran HI area on Friday, 12 June 2026. According to him, 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 student alliance also refused to demonstrate at the DPR. Yatalathof assessed that conveying aspirations to the DPR would not change the situation, as the DPR currently represents the government’s interests more than the public’s. “Now they are merely an administrative counter for the executive,” he said. By midday, the student crowd was reported to be walking from the Semanggi and Senayan areas towards Bundaran HI. They continued their efforts to hold the protest at that location. Tempo has contacted the Head of Public Relations of the Metro Jaya Police, Commissioner Budi Hermanto, for comment, but no response has been received at the time of writing. Previously, Yatalathof mentioned several organisations that stated they would join the protest, including all UI BEMs, IPB BEM, PNJ BEM, Pancasila University BEM, Gunadarma BEM Alliance, FMN Pusat, FMN UI, Pembebasan, and Semar UI. The students brought five main demands: stopping state budget waste, 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. They also urged President Prabowo to acknowledge the government’s mistakes.