According to media reports, on August 22, large-scale protests broke out in Jakarta and multiple cities in Indonesia. That day, some protesters clashed with police, and protesters broke through the fence of the Indonesian parliament building, causing the situation to spiral out of control. Police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd, and some of the dispersed rioters set fire to police cars and vandalized public facilities nearby. According to police, a total of 301 suspects allegedly involved in causing trouble during the demonstrations have been arrested so far.

In addition, on August 23, protesters supporting the Constitutional Court's ruling gathered again outside the office of Indonesia's General Elections Commission (KPU) in Central Jakarta to express their demands, including students and members of the public.

In view of this situation, the Indonesian police deployed 3,719 joint security personnel from the police, the military, and special regional government and relevant agencies, with the aim of ensuring the safety of the protest held in front of the Indonesian parliament building.They also adopted strict security measures to prevent the crowd from entering the parliament building or blocking roads, and prepared firefighting equipment to respond to possible arson.

It is understood that the large-scale protests broke out in opposition to the amendment to the Regional Election Law. Initially, in May of this year, the Indonesian Supreme Court (MA) revised its ruling on the minimum age requirement for regional head candidates, changing the calculation time so that a candidate only needs to be 30 years old at the time of being sworn into office after being elected. After the amendment was introduced, the Indonesian Labor Party and the Gelora Party argued that it infringed on constitutional rights and filed a lawsuit.

Later, the Indonesian Constitutional Court (MK) approved the lawsuit, but the legislative body of the Indonesian parliament attempted to pass a new amendment, ignoring the Constitutional Court's ruling, which in turn triggered public dissatisfaction. As a result, protests broke out nationwide, ultimately leading the parliament to cancel its plan to pass the amendment and announce that it would comply with the Constitutional Court's ruling.

In addition, some reports indicated that the purpose of the amendment to the Regional Election Law was for the country's president, Joko Widodo, to pave the way for his son to enter the election and to strengthen his family dynasty's influence over Indonesia. This therefore aroused public dissatisfaction and triggered large-scale protests, and also caused the Indonesian stock market and the Indonesian rupiah to be hit on the 22nd, with the Jakarta Composite Index closing down 0.87%.

In fact, in recent years, prices in Indonesia have risen while people's salaries have increased only slightly, leading to a notable rise in the cost of living and damage to multiple industries, so public dissatisfaction has continued to grow. At present, the goal of this demonstration has been achieved, but people worry that the authorities may go back on their word, so they are still continuing their actions.

Moreover, in recent times coffee farmers in several regions of Indonesia have also expressed dissatisfaction with the government, all because rising prices have driven up cultivation costs, yet since the start of this year several regions of Indonesia have been affected by natural disasters, leading to reduced yields.

Although the Indonesian government earlier designated the coffee industry as a priority industry for development and increased funding and subsidies, these measures have had no effect. According to official Indonesian data, in June 2024 the country's largest coffee-producing region, Sumatra, exported a total of 120868 bags of coffee (60 kg/bag), a decrease of 51.89% compared with the same period last year. In addition, in the first 3 months of the 2024/25 year (April-June), coffee export volume fell by 51.56% compared with the same period last year. While production has declined, global robusta coffee prices remain high, but due to the impact of the Red Sea crisis, many countries have reduced their purchases of coffee beans in the Asian region, so the Indonesian coffee market is sluggish.

At present, however, because conflicts have broken out in many places and quite a few trade unions have taken part in demonstrations, processing and exports may be delayed, which is not conducive to the development of the coffee industry, and because of the political turmoil, many people in the coffee trade believe the outlook for the coffee industry is rather unclear.

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