Indonesian Vice-President Gibran Rakabuming Raka told President Prabowo Subianto on Tuesday that he intends to resign. The announcement came hours before students rallied outside parliament in Jakarta to demand his impeachment.
State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi said Gibran raised resignation during a two-and-a-half-hour meeting with Prabowo on the morning of 10 November. Gibran cited what Prasetyo called the developing situation around rulings by the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court. Prasetyo said the president did not reject the request. Instead, Prabowo “offered suggestions”, and Gibran asked for a chance to prove his documents are valid before the State Administrative Court. No formal resignation has been submitted, and no process to remove him has started.
Later the same day, Gibran said he would work with the Education Ministry to ask the Supreme Court to review its ruling.
The dispute concerns a 2019 Education Ministry certificate. It declared Gibran’s schooling in Singapore and Australia equivalent to an Indonesian high-school diploma, a legal requirement for vice-presidential candidates. On 30 October, the Supreme Court annulled that certificate in ruling 742 K/TUN/2026 and ordered the ministry to withdraw it. Two lower administrative courts had rejected the case.
The full text, released on Tuesday, says no evidence was found that Gibran holds the foreign diploma the certificate was based on. That finding echoes the Constitutional Court. Earlier this year it rejected a petition to disqualify him, citing limits on who could file and on deadlines, but it noted that the hearings produced no convincing proof of high-school-level education.
Gibran is the eldest son of former president Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi. He became eligible to run in 2024 only after a separate Constitutional Court ruling on candidate age. That ruling was decided by a bench chaired by his uncle.
Removing a vice-president requires parliament (the DPR) to adopt a formal “opinion” with two-thirds support. The Constitutional Court must then confirm it, and the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) makes the final decision. The National Awakening Party (PKB) has said it is considering that route. Golkar deputy chair Ahmad Doli Kurnia called it the only relevant mechanism. Prabowo’s Gerindra party has not taken a position. DPR deputy speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad postponed any discussion until parliament’s recess ended on 8 November.
Jakarta police logged 74 demonstrations across the capital on Tuesday, Heroes’ Day. They estimated 2,500 to 2,700 participants spread across sites including parliament, the National Monument and the Hotel Indonesia roundabout. Outside parliament, students from the PMII and GMNI organisations blocked half of Jalan Gatot Subroto. They read four demands, the first of which was impeachment, and then dispersed without reported clashes. Rallies were also planned in Yogyakarta, Surabaya and Purwokerto.
The movement did not start with Gibran. It took shape around 20 October, the second anniversary of the Prabowo–Gibran government. A coalition of student councils called Komite Sadar led it. Its five demands are:
declare the forest fires a national disaster and prosecute the companies responsible
redirect public spending
lower education costs
protect civil liberties
end the use of soldiers and police in civilian roles
Around 700 students occupied the Hotel Indonesia roundabout on 28 October, and rallies spread to Yogyakarta, Makassar, Malang and Balikpapan. Komite Sadar gave the government until the end of November to respond.
The fires have burned in Borneo and Sumatra since July. The forest monitor Nusantara Atlas estimates about 7,800 square kilometres burned between January and September. The Health Ministry has recorded at least 277,000 acute respiratory infections linked to the haze, including 60,000 in children under five. The smoke has reached Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines.
The government has refused to declare a national disaster. “We are still able to handle it,” Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Dudung Abdurachman said on 12 October. The disaster agency BNPB reported 639 hectares still burning in six priority provinces that day. That figure counts only active fires, not the total area burned. The new BNPB head, Lieutenant General Kristomei Sianturi, said on 15 October that the status was still under consideration. A day earlier, the anti-corruption agency KPK had detained five people in a case involving BNPB emergency funds.
Government Communication Agency head Syahganda Nainggolan said the government respects the right to protest and is “open to public input”. Students say no minister has met them.
The protests coincide with a second crisis at the top of the security apparatus. On 3 November, police investigators named former national police chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo as a suspect in the illegal wiretapping of the president’s phone. Two serving two-star generals were named with him, and a third followed on 5 November. Investigators say the interception ran from 2025 to 2026. Listyo had been moved from police chief to presidential chief of staff on 1 October.
The palace has described the wiretapping as an attempt to overthrow the government (makar), an offence that carries the death penalty. Police say they are still investigating that charge and have made no arrests. Listyo was appointed police chief by Jokowi in 2021, and no suspect has publicly responded.
So within two weeks, the son and the police chief of the previous president have both come under legal pressure. The students’ grievances, meanwhile, are mostly about current policy: fires, budgets and the military’s role in civilian life.