Budiman Sudjatmiko

Budiman Sudjatmiko, MA, MPhil (born 10 March 1970 in Cilacap, Central Java) is an Indonesian activist, politician and actor.

He is known for co-authoring the Indonesian Village Law and founding the Innovators 4.0 Movement.

He is also known as a reform activist for his involvement in founding and leading the People's Democratic Party (PRD), and infamously, reading out the PRD manifesto in the courtroom.

His book, Anak-Anak Revolusi, became one of the sources of information about the world of activism during the New Order era.

By the New Order, he was falsely blamed for inciting the 27 July Incident in the storming of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) office and was later sentenced to 13 years in prison.

He was a political prisoner until the final years of the Suharto regime.

Sudjatmiko is the son of Wartono (father) and Sri Sulastri (mother), the first of four children.

His family raised him in a religious atmosphere.

He began to pay attention to the poverty that ensnared the lower class when he found his childhood caregiver committed suicide due to immense debt.

Budiman has been active in various discussions and organizational activities ever since he was in junior high school.

He spent his childhood in Bogor, attending primary school at SD Negeri Pengadilan 2 Bogor.

He continued his junior high school education at SMP Negeri 1 Cilacap, graduating in 1986.

For senior high school, he attended SMA Negeri 5 Bogor and SMA Muhammadiyah 1 Yogyakarta, graduating in 1989.

He was in the management structure of the Muhammadiyah Student Association while studying at Muhammadiyah 1 Yogyakarta High School.

Although he initially pursued higher education at Gadjah Mada University.

He was involved in the student movement while studying at the Faculty of Economics at Gadjah Mada University (UGM).

With this, he immersed himself in student movements and as a community organizer who carried out political, organizational and economic empowerment processes among farmers and plantation workers around Central Java and East Java.

As a result of his activities, he did not have time to complete his studies.

He later resumed his education after imprisonment, studying Political Science at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and earning a Master of International Relations at Clare Hall, Cambridge.

Inspired by revolutionary movements, he dropped out of university to focus on a people power movement.

He was chairman of the People's Democratic Association (Perhimpunan Rakyat Demokratik), which in July 1996 formed the People's Democratic Party (PRD) — at a time when it was illegal to form political parties.

PRD opposed the regime of long-serving President Suharto.

Shortly after the PRD's declaration, state troops and hired thugs on 27 July 1996 attacked pro-democracy activists during a protest in Central Jakarta, killing at least five people.

This incident, also known as the Gray Saturday, was a raid on the DPP office of the Indonesian Democratic Party on Jl.

Diponegoro, Jakarta.

Fighting broke out among supporters of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) who had split over their DPP office located at Jl.

Diponegoro 58, Central Jakarta.

Following resistance from PDI supporters and also from the people of Jakarta, the city was set ablaze on July 27.

As a result Budiman was used as a scapegoat by the New Order government and was accused of being the mastermind for supposedly orchestrating the month-long Free Speech.

Budiman was made a scapegoat for the riot and PRD was accused of being a communist organization that had sought to forcibly overthrow the government.

The military and police sought to arrest Budiman and exerted pressure on his parents.

On 5 August 1996, Lieutenant General Syarwan Hamid claimed there were "indications" that Budiman's father was a former member of the outlawed Indonesian Communist Party.

Budiman was arrested on 11 August 1996, accused of subversion and insulting the government.

In April 1997, he received a 13 year jail sentence.

Due to the victory of the democracy movement, Budiman only served 3.5 years after being granted amnesty by President Abdurrahman Wahid on December 10, 1999.

He was released on 10 December 1999, more than one year and six months after Suharto's downfall.

Budiman was a supporter of reformist President Abdurrahman Wahid, who was impeached and removed from power on 23 July 2001 after losing the support of the military and parliament.

Prior to Wahid's removal, Budiman was among a group of 40 people—mostly foreigners—briefly detained when police and an Islamic militia group raided an anti-globalization conference in Depok on 8 June 2001.

Budiman later in 2001 resigned as chairman of PRD.

After returning to Indonesia, in late 2004 Budiman joined the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P),one of Indonesia's major political parties, and formed REPDEM (Relawan Perjuangan Demokrasi), a wing organization of the party.