The Securitization of Political Dissent in Indonesia’s 17+8 Tuntutan Rakyat Protest Movement

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the process of securitization of the 17+8 People's Demands Movement by the Indonesian state in August–September 2025 and to identify the factors driving this process. The study employs a qualitative approach with a single-case study design, combining process tracing and discourse analysis to trace the relationship between institutional legitimacy pressures, collective mobilization, threat construction, and the state's security response. The findings show that the 17+8 Movement developed through the accumulation of economic, political, and institutional grievances amid a legitimacy gap in representative institutions. As mobilization expanded, state actors constructed a distinction between peaceful aspirations and actions categorized as anarchy and security threats. This framing was subsequently adopted by security apparatuses and followed by an intensification of coercive measures. However, securitization was only partially effective in controlling protests because it neither addressed the underlying grievances driving mobilization nor halted the circulation of demands through digital networks. This study argues that a legitimacy crisis constitutes a precondition for the securitization of political dissent. Theoretically, it conceptualizes securitization as a legitimacy management strategy that enables the state to maintain its capacity for control in the short term but remains insufficient to produce sustainable political stability amid democratic backsliding and digital mobilization.