A ride-hailing motorbike driver giving a flower to a member of the Indonesian army, during a rally calling for peace in Indonesia. - Reuters
SINGAPORE: People in South-East Asia are rallying behind gig workers in Indonesia and sending them food and daily necessities through delivery apps, following a weekend of deadly riots that gripped the country.
Popular anger exploded after Affan Kurniawan, a 21-year-old motorcycle taxi driver, was crushed by a police tactical vehicle during clashes in Jakarta on Aug 28, with his death fuelling some of the country’s worst unrest in decades.
According to local media reports, a day later in Makassar another ride-hailing driver, identified only as Rusdamdiansyah, was beaten to death near the Universitas Muslim Indonesia campus after a crowd accused him of being an undercover agent.
In the wake of the violence, Indonesians began using delivery apps to send food, drinks and first-aid kits to delivery riders, who have become one of the largest blocks in the demonstrations.
Netizens have since posted instructions online explaining how to do this, and others in neighbouring South-east Asian countries have joined in on the practice to show support for these gig workers.
Some of the posts that emerged over the weekend provide detailed instructions for people outside Indonesia using apps such as Grab and Gojek to send food and first aid kits to platform drivers in Jakarta or other provinces seized by unrest such as Bandung, Yogyakarta and Makassar.
The instructions advise changing app location settings, a pre-existing feature, to Jakarta and selecting a central hotel as a delivery point.
Grab allows users to change their location to other cities in the region as well.
The instructions also remind people to avoid sending orders to points near police stations or including pork or alcohol in them.
A Singaporean media professional was among those moved to send food to Indonesian delivery riders after watching waves of protest sweep the country.
The woman in her 30s spent the weekend following events on news sites and Instagram. On Aug 31, she placed an order for 10 packets of mutton nasi goreng from a favourite eatery in central Jakarta, which she visits whenever she travels to the Indonesian capital.
Each packet costs about 40,000 rupiah (S$3.40), and she added a 50,000 rupiah tip, the maximum allowed on the app.
“All I wanted was to show my support for these riders who are fighting hard for what they believe in. It may not be much, but I hope it gives them some motivation to carry on,” she told The Straits Times.
A 30-year-old retail manager in Malaysia also sent food and drink orders – valued at over six million rupiah – to riders in Indonesia over the weekend.
He told ST that media reports about the gig workers’ situation on the ground had affected him, and that although he was not there physically, he wanted to contribute in a small but meaningful way.
Several riders later told him they were touched by the gesture.
“I believe that during times of uncertainty and crisis, simple gestures of solidarity can bring comfort. My motivation was not about doing something big, but about showing care and support for those caught in a difficult situation,” he said.
He had learnt that because of the unrest, demand for deliveries had dropped significantly, leaving riders with few jobs and lower income.
“I actually placed the food orders specifically for the riders themselves. During the unrest, many of them were badly affected because local residents were not ordering food as usual,” he said.
A Gojek spokesman told ST that customers in Indonesia can buy meal sets to show appreciation and support for driver-partners, a feature that it said has been welcomed by customers.
ST has contacted Grab for a response.
The protests began on Aug 25 over a controversial rise in lawmakers’ housing allowances, but quickly broadened to cover frustrations about rising living costs, job insecurity and allegations of police brutality.
Demonstrations spread from Jakarta to other major cities, with rioters torching government buildings and transport facilities. At least six people were killed before the unrest subsided on Aug 31, after the government pledged to revoke the perks and investigate police conduct.
Analysts say the outpouring reflects both the structural vulnerabilities of gig work in Indonesia and a shared sense of empathy in the region – not only for riders, but also for Indonesians demanding accountability from the authorities.
Edbert Gani Suryahudaya from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies Indonesia said that Affan, the delivery rider who was killed, represents the young generation, who should have had access to decent jobs and been part of Indonesia’s emerging middle class.
While some dismiss these gestures as armchair activism, Edbert said they reveal shared middle-class vulnerabilities in South-East Asia. The spread of platforms like Grab and Gojek has made those parallels visible, and has given people a practical way to act on them.
“The fact that he ended up as an informal worker highlights a deeper structural problem: the shortage of decent employment opportunities. Affan is just one among thousands of young Indonesians struggling to secure stable jobs to sustain their daily lives,” he said.
Asked why the cause struck such a chord regionally, Dr Mustafa Izzuddin, senior international affairs analyst at business consultancy firm Solaris Strategies Singapore, said it shows how the struggles of Indonesian gig workers resonate across South-East Asia, spurring people to acts of solidarity.
“This cross-border engagement at the non-governmental level is aligned with people-to-people diplomacy as a means to enhance regional solidarity,” said Dr Mustafa, who is also a visiting professor in international relations at the Islamic University of Indonesia.
“What we have witnessed here is the regional kampung spirit of gotong-royong (mutual cooperation) in South-East Asia, which may well set the tone and trend for future cross-border cooperation among South-East Asians,” he said. - The Straits Times/ANN
