The Indonesian National Museum caught fire and began burning at about 7.45 pm on Saturday, the 16th of September 2023 and by 8 pm the fire brigade had been called. They arrived within minutes of the call, as the fire department is situated close by. Despite the long dry season, the canal behind the Museum still had water in it and soon dirty canal water was being used to try to douse the fire which rose like an orange and red rooster flying to the top of a building at the back of the old section of the Museum - the part built between 1862 and 1868.

Ujang Komarudin, political observer at Al Azhar University Jakarta, believes that President Joko Widodo's statement that he felt comfortable being driven by Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto is a coded message of his support for Prabowo in the 2024 presidential election.

On the evening of August 15, 2023, at Bidakara Auditorium, Jakarta, Presidential Candidate Prabowo Subianto, before the Civitas Academica of Universitas Kebangsaan RI (UKRI) and an audience encompassing the entire nation, shared his thoughts on the strategy and program of how to achieve the Golden Era of our nation in 2045, precisely one hundred years after our founding fathers declared our Independence, following three hundred and fifty years of Dutch colonization and three and a half years of Japanese occupation.