JAKARTA, thekabarnews.com – A televised debate on iNews has intensified scrutiny of GRIB Jaya’s decision to deploy hundreds of members during unrest that followed a demonstration near Indonesia’s parliament complex on August 27.

Legal practitioner Ahmad Khozinudin questioned whether a community organization could independently perform public-order duties that Indonesian law assigns to the police.

GRIB Jaya Secretary-General Zulfikar, however, said members of the organization acted as concerned citizens seeking to prevent further disorder.

The two presented their arguments during iNews’ Rakyat Bersuara program, titled “Behind the August 2026 Demonstrations,” on Tuesday, September 1. A recording of the discussion also circulated through Facebook.

Khozinudin said the law prohibits community organizations from performing duties assigned to law enforcement officers.

He argued that the police have established procedures for assessing threats and deciding how to respond during public disturbances.

Allowing civilian groups to intervene independently, he said, could place members of the public against one another.

“If uniformed police officers had arrived, those young people would have run away,” Khozinudin said.

“But when civilians confronted them, they thought, You are a civilian, and I am also a civilian. What authority do you have?’ In the end, people were pitted against each other,” he added.

Zulfikar acknowledged that GRIB Jaya deployed members after violence broke out following the demonstration. He claimed that those responsible for the disturbances did not belong to the main protest group.

“We also felt called upon as citizens. We have the right to protect our city, our country and our government from parties who act arbitrarily and think they can do whatever they want,” Zulfikar said.

According to Zulfikar, GRIB Jaya transported members in five trucks and two private vehicles. Some carried bamboo poles, but he denied that the organization intended to start a confrontation.

He said members visited several locations and told people involved in the unrest to leave.

“We traveled in a convoy. At the first location, we stopped and told them to go home. We stayed on the toll road and did not get out,” he said.

GRIB Jaya has also denied allegations circulating online that its members assaulted a resident who later died. Police had not publicly held the organization responsible for the death when this article was prepared.

Indonesia’s Police Law assigns the National Police responsibility for maintaining public order, enforcing the law and protecting citizens.

The law also permits police to coordinate and supervise community-based security initiatives. However, that provision does not automatically authorize an organization to exercise coercive police powers independently. The statutory duties appear in Articles 13 and 14 of Law No. 2/2002.

Jakarta Metropolitan Police said investigators were still examining allegations that community organizations became involved in the unrest.

Officers were collecting witness statements and reviewing other evidence, including information about GRIB Jaya members and the reported presence of its chair, Hercules.

“Regarding the alleged involvement of a community organization, we are still investigating because we must verify the facts,” Jakarta police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Budi Hermanto said, according to the Polri news service.

The investigation must determine what individual participants did and whether they committed any offense. The presence of GRIB Jaya members at the scene does not, by itself, establish organizational or criminal responsibility.