Flooding and landslides caused by a cyclone killed more than 1,000 people and destroyed over 100,000 homes in Sumatra in December. Indonesian researchers and environmental experts say the severity of the damage can be credited to years of environmental policies that have favoured the expansion of heavy industry, logging, palm oil and mining over protecting the sustainability of the region’s ecosystem, resulting in a landscape that is no longer capable of absorbing large amounts of rainfall. The central government also received significant criticism for refusing foreign aid and declining to declare a national disaster. The latter measure would have allowed it to access emergency funds and streamline disaster response efforts. Experts speaking to the British Broadcasting Corporation credited the government’s refusal on both counts as attempts to minimize scrutiny of the government’s response efforts and thereby protect its public image.

Sources: The Conversation, The Jakarta Post, Asia Sentinel, British Broadcasting Corporation

Indonesia’s Constitutional Court ruled on 17 November that the practice of police officers holding additional government jobs is unconstitutional. The 2002 National Police Law contained two conflicting provisions on whether police officers could hold another government job simultaneously, and the ruling struck down the passage, which the justices ruled created legal ambiguity. Over 4,000 police officers hold second government jobs, about 300 of whom are in high-ranking managerial positions. Appointments of the latter have become more common under President Prabowo Subianto, and the ruling was welcomed by democracy advocates as part of preventing a return to the ‘dual function’ role of the security forces of Sukarno-era Indonesia.

Update: A National Police regulation decreed on 9 December was criticized by constitutional law experts as disobeying the Constitutional Court’s decision. The decree allows officers to take on government jobs relevant to police work that are requested by the employing institutions. A spokesperson for the National Police said Article 28(3) of the National Police Law allows for such postings and remains in force despite the Court’s ruling, but allowed that officers will be ‘reassigned’ after taking any such posting to prevent a police officer from holding two jobs simultaneously. However, critics maintain the purpose of the ruling was to prevent active-duty police from holding civilian roles indefinitely–a practice which the new decree explicitly allows.

Sources: Jakarta Post (1), Jakarta Post (2), Jakarta Post (3)

Indonesia’s House of Representatives passed the Criminal Procedure Bill (KUHAP) into law on 18 November, the most broad-reaching changes to procedural criminal law in 40 years. Civil society critics and legal experts say the bill transfers too much investigatory authority to the police, at the expense of judicial or parliamentary oversight. The government maintains the changes are needed to streamline outdated processes. For example, police will now be able to search and seize assets, conduct surveillance and authorize wiretaps without prosecutorial permission or oversight. Civil society experts have criticized the process of the bill’s passage, saying that it was only made public hours before passing into law and the parliament misled the public about the scale of civil society involvement, and have urged President Prabowo Subianto to repeal it.

Sources: Tempo, Jakarta Post, Fulcrum

Four West Papua independence activists from Sorong on the island of Guinea were sentenced to seven months’ imprisonment on treason charges on 20 November. Advocates say the sentences are a case of the criminalization of freedom of expression. The four men presented themselves at a local Indonesian government office on 14 April, 2025 as representatives of the unrecognized state of Federal Republic of West Papua (NFRPB) and delivered a letter seeking talks between the Indonesian government and the NFRPB to resolve the ongoing West Papuan separatist conflict. The men were arrested two weeks later and placed in pretrial detention. Their detention and transfer to a more distant prison triggered local protests which, in some instances, became violent. Human rights advocates say the interpretation of treason is inconsistent with Indonesia’s international treaty obligations, as the four men were not armed, did not threaten or call for violence, and did not call on others to support West Papuan secession. The defendants declined to appeal as, due to the length of their pre-trial incarceration, they were due to be released on 28 November, 2025. 

Sources: Radio New Zealand, Human Rights Monitor, Tapol, IDN Times, Amnesty International Indonesia 

 A 17 October Constitutional Court ruling exempted non-commercial cultivation by indigenous peoples from a law mandating state authorization for all agricultural activities in Indonesian forests. There were 154 related land conflicts documented between 2020 and 2024, which affected 103,000 families and over 1 million hectares of land. The decision marks a step forward in indigenous peoples’ efforts to acquire the rights to live in and practice subsistence agriculture in customary forests and was welcomed by indigenous rights advocates. However, the immediate impact of the law is likely to be modest, as regulation of indigenous rights and forest management is not well coordinated between various national and regional ministries, and indigenous status is not straightforward to obtain. Advocates say legislation is needed to strengthen indigenous people’s right to use customary forests and traditional lifestyles.

Sources: Jakarta Post, The Star, Monga Bay

The Constitutional Court ruled on 30 October that 30 per cent of members in all bodies of the House of Representatives, including commissions, ethics committees and more, must be women. The case was brought by women’s advocacy and democratic reform groups. The Court held that the principle of equality in representation should not be limited to electoral lists and should instead be respected throughout representative bodies. House leadership will hold talks with the leaders of all represented political parties to determine how best to comply with the ruling. Women have historically been placed on bodies overseeing issues seen as feminine, such as women’s empowerment and child protection. At the time of the ruling, only 18 of 104 leadership positions in legislative committees and bodies are held by women.

Sources: Jakarta Post, Kompas

The Indonesian government has seized and nationalized 3.7 million hectares of palm oil plantations since President Prabowo Subianto took office in October 2024, accounting for about 30 per cent of the land under cultivation. Ownership of seized land is eventually passed to Agrinas Palma Nusantara, a state-owned company with strong ties to the Indonesian military founded in January 2025. Agrinas is also managed by current and former military and security officials. While human rights and environmentalist groups have welcomed efforts to better regulate and oversee the palm oil industry, the process has also been criticized for its opacity, as the seizure is a process handled by the military and Agrinas without judicial oversight. Advocates of small-scale palm oil producers argue many plantations are classified as illegal only because registration processes are complex and difficult to understand. Public criticism from elsewhere in the industry has been limited, as businesses are wary of upsetting the government or Indonesian military.

Sources: Reuters, Asia Sentinel

The Constitutional Court ruled that laws against ministers holding multiple, concurrent positions at state-owned enterprises (SOEs) also apply to deputy ministers. Thirty-one of the 55 deputy ministers in President Prabowo’s government hold a second office in or overseeing an SOE. The ruling was welcomed for strengthening public administration by lessening direct political involvement in SOEs and reducing the opportunities for corruption or abuse of state resources. However, constitutional law experts say new legislation is needed to prevent deputy ministers from holding second jobs of any kind. The Court’s ruling also provided a two-year grace period to replace all deputy ministers serving in SOEs, but legal experts criticized the government for continuing to appoint deputy ministers to positions at SOEs after the ruling was issued as violating it in spirit. The government denied these charges and said it was in the process of restructuring SOEs in line with the court ruling.

Sources: Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia, Jakarta Post (1), Jakarta Post (2)

The Supreme Court on 15 September overturned an appeals court ruling and reinstated the corruption convictions of three palm oil firms, including the Singapore-based multinational firm, Wilmar International. The Court found the companies had engaged in corrupt practices and violated a palm oil export ban in 2022, costing the state IDR 18 trillion (USD 1.07 billion). The Court ordered each company to pay a fine of IDR 1 billion (USD 60,000) and additional restitution to the state between IDR 900 billion to 11 trillion (USD 54 million to 650 million). The three companies in question are also alleged to have bribed the appeals court judges who overturned the initial conviction. Those judges were arrested in April 2025, and their trial is ongoing. Indonesia produces most of the world’s palm oil and the case is a test of the government’s ability to strengthen oversight over and better regulate the sector.

Sources: Jakarta Post, Nikkei Asia, International IDEA, Supreme Court of the Republic of Indonesia