Province

Jakarta

DKI Jakarta

Officially named the Special Capital Region of Jakarta, Indonesia’s largest metropolis serves as the economic, cultural, and political hub of the country as well as the nation’s capital city. With a total area of 662,33 square kilometers, Jakarta is divided into five administrative regions: Central Jakarta, North Jakarta, West Jakarta, South Jakarta, East Jakarta, and the administrative regency of Thousand Islands. The province also has a metropolitan area that includes the satellite cities of Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi, Puncak, and Cianjur (Jabodetabekpunjur).

Despite being the capital, Jakarta is undergoing legislative changes through the Jakarta Special Region (DKJ) bill, aligning with the Nusantara Capital City (IKN) Law for relocating the capital to Nusantara, East Kalimantan. Through this bill, Jakarta aims to be redefined as a global business and economic hub, akin to New York or Melbourne, while expanding its metropolitan area to include Cianjur regency in West Java and the South Tangerang municipality in Banten.

As of 2022, Jakarta’s population stands at 10.6 million people, making it the province with the highest population density in Indonesia, with 16,158 people per square kilometer. It is home to various ethnic groups, predominantly Javanese, alongside Betawi, Sundanese, Batak, Minang, and Malay. In terms of religion, the majority of Jakarta’s population are Muslims, totaling 9.4 million people, followed by Christians with 437,967 people, Hindus with 20,262 people, Buddhists with 393,919 people, Konghuchu with 1,739 people, and adherents of indigenous beliefs 417 people.

On its way to becoming a Smart City 4.0, the Jakarta Provincial Government established Jakarta Smart City (JSC). Operating under the authority of the Jakarta Provincial Government and the Jakarta Provincial Communication, Informatics, and Statistics Office (Diskominfotik), JSC aims to optimize technology in government affairs and public services for the benefit of all Jakarta residents.

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Jakarta’s Economy

As the largest metropolis in Southeast Asia, the DKI Jakarta Central Statistics Agency (BPS) recorded Jakarta’s Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) at constant prices in 2023 reaching Rp 2.050 trillion, indicating an economic growth of 4.96 percent from 2022. Based on this GRDP, the top three leading sectors that drive Jakarta’s economic growth are wholesale and retail trade, which reached Rp 321 trillion in GRDP, followed by information and communications at Rp 281 trillion, and the manufacturing industry at Rp 232 trillion.

Moreover, from an expenditure standpoint, Jakarta’s largest proportion came from the exports of goods and services at 66.29 percent, followed by household consumption (HCE) at 62.15 percent, and gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) at 34.24 percent.

In addition, data from the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) shows that the cumulative realization of foreign and direct investment in Jakarta until 2022 reaches Rp 53.8 trillion, constituting about 8.2 percent of the total national realization. This makes Jakarta the reigning top investment destination province in Indonesia, with popular sectors encompassing construction, tourism, technology and information, and trade. As for domestic investment, the construction sector dominated in 2022 with a value of Rp 28.8 trillion, while the realization of foreign investments was dominated by the transportation, warehouse, and telecommunications sector, reaching Rp 20 trillion.

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Latest News

May 28, 2025

The National Police have launched a massive crackdown on preman (thugs), following a series of high-profile cases of violence and extortion linked to them that embarrassed the country in the eyes of foreign investors. While some of those arrested will face prosecution, it is unlikely that the larger organizations behind them will be dissolved as President Prabowo Subianto has ordered.

Police said this week that they had rounded up 2,406 alleged preman in an 11-day operation in Jakarta alone, though only 231 were slated to face a court trial. The rest would be freed for lack of sufficient evidence. Police in other regions also reported arrests, the majority over alleged extortion, but others for violence, illegal debt collecting, muggings, theft, and possession of a weapon.

We have seen many similar campaigns in the past to know that things on the ground aren’t likely to change. Those arrested are small-time crooks, usually running protection rackets in markets and managing parking lots, mostly targeting small-scale traders but also motorists at times. They will lay low for now, and once the police clampdown ends, they will return and things will go back to “normal”.

Many thugs are part of legitimate mass organizations registered with the Home Ministry, however, making it hard for the government to disband them.

These groups are mostly militias with large memberships, some easily recognizable by their uniforms. They gain legitimacy from offering various services, such as providing supplementary support to police in securing big gatherings like political rallies and working as debt collectors for companies or individuals. Some enjoy the patronage of powerful politicians, political parties, and even the police, the military, or local administrations.

Notoriety is part of their public persona, so few dare to challenge or report, let alone fight, them. They have no qualms at being labeled preman, which derives from the Dutch term vrijman, meaning “freeman” and referred to colonial subjects not tied to any contract or bond. It evolved over the centuries, and it now refers to people outside the law.

One preman group that has recently attracted public attention is the United Indonesian People’s Movement (GRIB Jaya), founded in 2012 by Rosario “Hercules” Marshal, over a series of brushes with the law.

In April, the group closed a factory in South Barito, Central Kalimantan, to collect a payment on behalf of a local rubber supplier who had won a court case. That same month, GRIB Jaya members set fire to three police cars in Depok, West Java, after a local leader was picked up for questioning, apparently for making threats against officers.

There have also been reports of GRIB Jaya members clashing with those of Pemuda Pancasila, another group that ruled during the Soeharto era but gradually lost its territorial clout in gang wars with newcomers, including GRIB Jaya.

At one time, the group listed Prabowo Subianto as its chief patron, although his office said the President had relinquished that position long ago. Hercules, who comes from East Timor (now Timor-Leste), was a member of a pro-Indonesia militia in the 1980s when he first met Prabowo, who was then a young Army officer.

But it was not the series of violence linked to GRIB Jaya that triggered the latest police action on preman. Instead, two cases of extortion targeting Chinese investments that came to light prompted the President to order a crackdown, even suggesting that preman groups causing public unrest should be dissolved.

The first case emerged in a report in the South China Morning Post that bore the screaming headline “Indonesia seen as a gangster state” in its print edition and the longer “Indonesia’s EV revolution held hostage by ‘preman’ gangster problem” in its digital edition. The article refers to a series of extortion schemes targeting suppliers of an electric vehicle factory currently being developed by leading Chinese carmaker BYD in Subang, West Java. It also mentions other foreign investments in Indonesia that are being targeted by preman.

The second case targeted another Chinese company operating in West Java, this one as a contractor in the steel town of Cilegon and implicated the powerful Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin). In a video clip that has since gone viral, the chair of Kadin’s Cilegon chapter is seen demanding a Rp 5 trillion (US$312 million) project from the Chinese company. Kadin has since expelled the man.

And that’s probably the most that Indonesian authorities can do in terms of controlling preman: go after individuals, not the organizations behind them.

Dissolving preman groups is not unprecedented, however. In 2020, then-president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo banned the Islam Defenders Front (FPI), a hard-line, anti-government group notorious for terrorizing bars, hotels and places of worship in the name of Islam. It was not banned for its activities, however, but for not adopting state ideology Pancasila as its foundational principle as mandated by the Law on Mass Organizations.

If the government doesn’t take the drastic decision to ban some of the more problematic preman groups, the issue will likely remain after the police campaign is over. After all, premanisme (gang activity) is and has always been part of Indonesia’s business landscape for all entities, big or small.

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