The People Power Edition

Insight: Since late August, mass demonstrations have filled the streets in Indonesia, sparked by revelations of excessive pay and MP housing allowances that are nearly 10x Jakarta's minimum wage. Fresh rallies erupted following cuts to public services, and the death of a 21-year-old motorcycle rideshare driver at the hands of riot police during clashes in the capital. What began as a primarily student-led protest movement over inequality and corruption has escalated to some of the most serious unrest since the Reformasi era, with public buildings damaged, politicians' homes looted, and over 1,200 arrests nationwide. President Prabowo Subianto is scrambling to contain the crisis: rolling back MPs’ perks, pledging investigations, but simultaneously ordering a military crackdown that has drawn international criticism.

Impact: The unrest triggered a sell-off in Indonesian assets. The rupiah slumped to 16,509/USD on August 29 before recovering slightly after the central bank intervened with FX swaps and bond purchases. In Jakarta alone, damage to infrastructure and public buildings is estimated at IDR55 billion (USD3.3m). Beneath the immediate volatility lies a deeper fault line: youth unemployment at 16%, among the highest in Asia, and widening inequality that has fuelled resentment toward entrenched elites. Unless structural issues are addressed, symbolic concessions may do little to calm discontent. Investors will be looking closely for signals of fiscal stability and a credible reform agenda. The risk is that Indonesia’s fragile balance tips further toward escalating confrontation, raising the question of whether Prabowo can restore order without sparking a cycle of repression that recalls Indonesia’s more turbulent past.

At China’s Victory Day parade on September 3rd, three world leaders – Xi Jinping of China, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un – watched a 90-minute display of hundreds of advanced weapons, including four types of supersonic missile, as well as more than 10,000 soldiers. Experts say that China is catching up with the US in terms of military hardware though its equipment and troops remain untested.

Insight: Recent corruption probes in the Philippines revealed that up to 70% of a PHP545 billion (USD9.5 billion) flood control budget since 2022 may have been lost to “ghost projects” and substandard works, even as recent typhoons displaced more than 300,000 people. The controversy has spilled beyond Senate hearings into social media, where young Filipinos have taken to TikTok, Instagram, and Reddit forums to expose contractors’ and politicians’ children flaunting luxury cars, private jets, and designer wardrobes alongside images of flooded homes. Memes with captions like “my taxes paid for this outfit” have amplified the outrage, turning graft into a viral symbol of inequality that Filipinos can see, share, and shame.

Impact: This "lifestyle policing" phenomenon shows how digital outrage can evolve into a form of political accountability in the Philippines, following an established tradition of Filipinos using new media to challenge elites — much like the 70 million SMS messages that fueled the 2001 People Power protests. By exposing inequality in viral, visual ways, today's social platforms have the power to transform corruption scandals into collective demands for reform. Yet the economic toll is stark: these ghost projects have cost as many as 266,000 jobs, undercutting growth that could have reached 6%. As in Indonesia’s street protests, the backlash underscores deepening distrust in institutions as costs of impunity rise for those in power.

Insight: Netflix’s animated musical “K-Pop Demon Hunters” is a global sensation, racking up 236 million views since its June debut and becoming the platform’s most-watched movie of all time. The movie tells the tale of a fictional K-Pop girl group named Huntr/x whose members secretly work as demon hunters, fighting against the Saja Boys, a rival boy band who are demons in disguise. The movie’s soundtrack has also achieved unprecedented success, placing four tracks simultaneously in the Billboard Hot 100’s top 10.

Impact: The plot line is simple enough: a hero’s journey of a young girl with innate talents making peace with her imperfections and defending the world unapologetically. At first glance, it might even seem clichéd. What has transformed this formulaic premise into a global phenomenon is its cultural synthesis, amalgamating K-pop aesthetics, superhero action, and musical theater elements into something previously unseen. The film doesn’t just borrow from Korean culture; it draws inspiration from it and creates a production that is genuine and authentic. For an industry obsessed with franchise-building, "K-pop Demon Hunters" offers a blueprint: cultural authenticity plus genre innovation can still cut through the noise, even in 2025's oversaturated content landscape.

While China’s big military parade in Beijing stole the headlines this week, just days earlier something equally important took place in Tianjin. The 25th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit underscored the growing role of this China-led power bloc as a counterweight to Western influence, especially amid global instability and the Ukraine conflict.

Here is a more detailed analysis