Public Protests In Various Potential Regions Trigger Social Revolution

JAKARTA A political observer from the University of Jember, Muhammad Iqbal, said that the case of a large demonstration in Pati that demanded the Regent of Sadewo to resign was a bad example of public policy that did not side with the small people.

"The Pati Regent's policy to increase the UN tariff is clearly nir-empati. Amuk and fed up of Pati residents are the accumulation of many policies that are full of arrogance and rigidity of regents and bureaucracy," he said, Sunday, August 17, 2025.

He considered that the PBB-P2 tariff increase policy taken by a number of local governments was accompanied by a retret of regional heads in Tidar Waste, Magelang, Central Java, some time ago. Iqbal suspects that there is input from the central government to regional heads about how to deal with budget efficiency policies.

Including the policy politics of the 2026 budget policy which further shrinks the regional financial fiscal space. In fact, this triggers regional sporadic panic. In fact, if it is not managed adequately, Pati's case could trigger similar social turmoil in other areas," he continued.

In addition, he also suspects that the central government has predicted public protests that are likely to grow. Therefore, he is worried that the government will repressively respond to public protests by the deployment of security forces or even the military.

"On the other hand, this is a momentum of mutual awareness, especially for academic groups and civil society to sit with the central and regional governments to prevent a social revolution from happening," said Iqbal.

As is known, recently the public's protest against the policy of increasing taxes and levies occurred in several regions. The Pati community held a demonstration and urged the Regent Pati Sadewo to step down from his position. They protested against Sadewo's policy which suddenly boosted the value of the Rural and Urban Land and Building Tax (PBB-P2) by 250 percent.

Not only in Pati, but the policy of increasing UN rates also occurred in a number of other districts and cities. The Jombang Regency Government even boosted the PBB-P2 to 1,202 percent. The Regent of Jombang Warsubi argued that the policy had been approved by the Ministry of Home Affairs (Kemendagri) and the Ministry of Finance (Kemenkeu).

In Semarang Regency, a number of residents protested over the drastic increase in their UN bill. The Semarang Regency Government argued that the increase in the UN was caused by the adjustment of the value of tax objects based on strategic locations and changes in the number of buildings in residential areas. However, many residents protested the policy that seemed unilateral.

Protests were also held by the Cirebon City Rainbow Association. Like Pati residents, they rejected the UN's increase policy which even reached 1,000 percent in several areas. According to them, it is unfair for Cirebon residents to be burdened with such a large tax increase while the Pati Regent has canceled the PBB-P2 increase.