Indonesia and Nepal Crackdowns Undermine ASEAN’s Reform Goals

12 September 2025 | 12:50 CAT
1-minute read

Civil society leaders across Southeast Asia are warning that state-sponsored violence in Indonesia and Nepal threatens the region’s democratic ambitions, even as ASEAN promotes a long-term vision of shared prosperity.

Speaking to Radio Islam International, Malaysian human rights activist Debbie Stothard said that while Malaysia chairs the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) this year and has launched the 20-year strategic plan ASEAN 2045: Our Shared Future, the document “doesn’t reflect the reality.”

Since May, Indonesia has seen a harsh crackdown on cost-of-living protests under President Prabowo Subianto, a former general.

“We’ve seen the government authorising the use of live bullets, live weapons to suppress street protests,” Stothard explained. The first fatality occurred when “a police armoured car ploughed into a crowd,” she added.

Stothard said the unrest stems from new taxes on ordinary workers and “fat, huge raises in forms of accommodation allowances and rice allowances” for politicians. Cabinet changes, she argued, “are not going to make that much of a difference because as commander-in-chief, he basically empowered the police and the armed forces to be violent against a legitimate street protest.”

The violence, she warned, “is lowering human rights standards in the region. If Indonesia, the largest country in Southeast Asia, does this, then it bodes ill for other neighbouring countries.”

Nepal is experiencing similar turmoil. Gen Z-led protests over economic inequality have left at least 19 young people dead and forced the prime minister to resign.

“Even if leadership changes, the question is, will those institutions, will the structural questions be addressed? Will there be actual economic reforms?” Stothard asked.

She also highlighted Myanmar’s continuing military attacks on civilians, describing a region “sandwiched by and surrounded by state-sponsored violence.”

Against this backdrop, the ASEAN Peoples Forum will convene in Kuala Lumpur ahead of the next ASEAN summit, offering what Stothard calls “an alternative viewpoint from civil society perspectives” and a chance to hold governments accountable.

Listen to the Asia Pacific Report on Sabahul Muslim with Moulana Habib Bobat.