TAUD Urges Prabowo to Dismiss Indonesian Police Chief over Protest Handling

September 10, 2025 | 09:36 pm

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Advocacy Team for Democracy (TAUD) is urging President Prabowo Subianto to immediately dismiss National Police Chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo. This demand responds to alleged procedural errors by the police in protest handling last month, which claimed lives.

The advocacy group believes that the National Police Chief should be held accountable for the loss of lives during the wave of protests.

"Dismiss the National Police Chief and conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the police institution," said Coordinator of the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS), Dimas Bagus Arya, at the KontraS office in Central Jakarta on Wednesday, September 10, 2025.

According to Dimas, TAUD also calls for reforms within the police institution, through, among others, strengthening supervision on the National Police's performance.

Before making this demand, TAUD revealed the results of an investigation into the police's procedural errors in protest handling last month, which include the unlawful use of tactical vehicles.

Deputy chair of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), Arif Maulana, said the police began firing water cannons at 3:10 p.m. on August 28, 2025. According to Arif, at that time, the crowd wasn't rioting or vandalizing facilities.

Article 3 and 7 of National Police Chief Regulation Number 1 of 2009 concerning the Use of Force in Police Actions ruled that crowd dispersal must go through several stages. Starting from verbal warnings, the use of force with empty hands, and finally, in the final stage, the use of water cannons and tear gas.

"The police immediately jumped to the fifth stage by using water cannons," said Arif in the same forum.

Arif said the police's internal regulations mentioned that efforts to disperse the crowd should reach their maximum by 6:00 p.m. On the other hand, he said, there is no obligation for protesters to disperse by 6:00 p.m., as there is no regulations that govern such limits.

Furthermore, based on National Police Chief Regulation Number 16 of 2006, which was amended by National Police Chief Regulation Number 2 of 2019, tactical vehicles must be deployed near vital objects, at the back of police force, not directly in front of the crowd.

Arif emphasized that tactical vehicles do not function as crowd dispersal. "But what happened was the tactical vehicles were up front and chasing the demonstrators," he said.

According to TAUD's findings, the tactical vehicles also drove at a fast speed even though the road was filled with thousands of people. Previously, tear gas had been fired to disperse the demonstrators.

"When there is already an action to disperse the crowd with tear gas, the tactical vehicles should return to formation behind the police force," he said.

The Mobile Brigade tactical vehicle then hit a motorcycle taxi driver named Affan Kurniawan, who was crouching to find his phone. The vehicle was allegedly stopped only when Affan's body was already crushed by the front tire.

Arif said that at that time, the Mobile Brigade vehicle was zigzagging at high speed on Penjernihan 1 Street to disperse the crowd. However, the crowd was running to the left and right of the street.

Affan, he said, was not a participant in the demonstration. The rideshare driver had just delivered a food order to a fitness center near the location of the incident.

While the crowd was running, Affan also ran to the side of the road to save himself. He was allegedly crouching to reach for a fallen item.

"That's when the Mobile Brigade vehicle, at a fairly high speed on Penjernihan 1 Street, hit and crushed him," Arif said.

Affan Kurniawan was killed under the Mobile Brigade vehicle in the area of Penjernihan I, Central Jakarta, on Thursday, August 28, 2025. The findings of the Fact-Finding Task Force, composed of several civil society organizations, were based on Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) analysis of circulated videos and various testimonies at the location. Aside from Affan, ten other people also were killed during the widespread protests last month. 

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