PKI Ghost Busters

Reactions appearing on social media, as observed on an iPad, upset President Joko Widodo. One of the things that upset him most was the comment that the Jokowi administration-which is just over a year old-has suddenly become repressive, much like a reincarnation of Suharto's New Order rule.

On Thursday last week, the President summoned some of his closest aides, those working inside and outside the Presidential Palace. He asked for an assessment of the public's true reaction to the instruction he had given two days earlier. "Some of the authorities were seen as being excessive in interpreting the President's order," said presidential spokesman Johan Budi Sapto Pribowo.

May 17, 2016