The acid attack on KontraS activist Andrie Yunus in Jakarta on March 12 has once again forced citizens to confront a troubling question: how safe is civic space in the country’s democracy? Yunus, the deputy coordinator of the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS), was reportedly attacked by two unidentified assailants while riding his motorcycle in the Salemba area shortly after attending a public discussion on militarism and judicial review. The attack left him with serious burns and hospitalized in intensive care.

Less than two years into the presidency of Prabowo Subianto, alleged intimidation of vocal civilians is becoming alarmingly common. The latest example is the acid attack on Andrie Yunus, an activist from the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS). This incident exposes not only an old, familiar pattern, but also the crippled state of Indonesian politics that sustains it.

Government is once again preparing a new legal instrument to regulate the digital space. This time, the proposal comes in the form of an anti-disinformation bill, which officials say will target false information circulating on social media rather than mainstream media organizations. The government argues that such legislation is necessary to protect the public from hoaxes, propaganda and coordinated manipulation campaigns in the online sphere.

Few political controversies in Indonesia have proven as resilient as the debate over Jokowi’s university diploma. First emerging during the 2014 presidential election, the allegation that Jokowi’s degree from the Forestry Faculty of Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) was fabricated has resurfaced repeatedly over the past decade. Courts, the police and the university itself have repeatedly stated that Jokowi graduated legitimately in 1985. Yet the controversy refuses to disappear, illustrating how political narratives—once embedded in the public sphere—can acquire a life of their own.