Jakarta is Flaming Up

(The original version of this article was written on August 30th, 2025 in Medium. This is the edited version)

Jakarta Special Capital Region — like its epithet — is the epicenter of Indonesia, with its neverending stories of seeking hopes below the harsh life of the glimmering metropolitan city.

Living in this place is really hard, yet made proud even once you survived.

Beyond that proudful achivement to live in Jakarta, one thing that fascinates me is the movement of the people that centralized here in Jakarta. I can see closely from Central Jakarta where I live, like I can fan out to different places in Jakarta.

Jakarta has been a home to many government offices for centuries.

And this place is chaotic — hopes and desperation meet like a tire burnt by the demonstrant in the middle of protest. Since it’s been a home for government offices in Indonesia, this region is the loudest and snafu for any movements.

While the elite offices are placed in the southern area of Jakarta, and more controlled. Somehow it seems useless to have an oration there– the distance between the clamor and the seats of lawmakers is unbelievably distant, they are just playing deaf.

The police and the army are gatekeeping between the common people and the elite. Their anti-bullet shields make the oration not even echoed to the House of Representative hall.

Jakarta recently

Since the phrase “In this economy” is frequently spoken by the Gen Z, the country seems to be going to its downfall. With its neverending news of layoffs, a land tax increase up to 200%, a salary hike for lawmakers to fifty million rupiah, and the government’s poor communication that doesn’t side with the people are increasingly making the public pessimistic about the national hope of ‘Golden Indonesia 2045’

This frustration has been bottled up for months, even years. Till the time when the rampancy exploded in Jakarta.

Recently, police ran over a protester with a barracuda tactical vehicle. He is dead, and the part of the online driver — which is known for their solidarity.

The protest escalated nationally till now. Even the students took to the streets to join the protest.

The intersection of rage, hope, action, and death

Last night, the protest continued. The online driver group made protests in Senen intersection.

At night, it is a spot that made me bemused with its colorful lighting of the bridge, waiting for the light to turn green. That bridge connects to buildings nearby and Transjakarta bus station.

I used that mass transportation to anywhere. And the bus station is the only transit I have to go through if I’m going to the nearby bookstore in Matraman, or Atrium Mall, or Pasar Senen for thrifting.

But last night, no one had time to be amazed with its colorful lighting, piano-like and wavy design — an example of Transit Oriented Development I adore as I studied architecture in college before. The mass gathered in the intersection of hopes, rages, action, even death. Some mass gathered on the fly-over highway above the intersection.

Now, the bus station and the bridge are burnt down. I wondered how to bemuse again in this spot like I used to be — but, uh oh, I even no longer enjoy this life in this Konoha country anymore.

Jakarta is flaming up, with our hope and desperation to be heard for the sake of ‘the Golden Indonesia 2045’ hope. Until a person becomes a casualty of the authorities’ repressive actions.

Living here, as a resident of Jakarta since I was born, with its bipolaritic conditions and changing movements made me fired up, and uptight at the same time.

Jakarta is flaming up, with the help of God’s pristine ray of light, that people lean their hope into — while I don’t anymore.

So, if the heart of nation is flaming up, and its child is shivering in cold, who stays warm here?