It wasn’t quite up to the standard of the gilets jaunes of Paris. To suggest that it was the ‘worst’ rioting since May 1998, as some have, risks gross exaggeration. It only serves as a reminder of just how relatively peaceful Indonesian democracy has been in the 20 years since its resurrection.

But the rock-throwing demonstrators who closed down some major thoroughfares and inner-city neighborhoods in Jakarta for two days last week did enough to make a point. What that point was exactly hasn’t been easy to fathom.

It appears many of them were paid—the going rate according to the police was IDR 300,000 ($30) per person—and came armed for trouble. The hard core who were prepared to brave the tear gas and fetid water bombed on their heads from firefighting helicopters probably numbered in the hundreds. As paid demonstrators, it was hard to ascribe any motive to them, other than pecuniary and the diffuse anger that comes with being young, urban and poor.

Their masters, on the other hand, have been working hard for months now to undermine confidence in an election they always knew they were likely to lose. Their motives are more complex.

Read more: The Strategist