[1] In reaction to a state visit by the Japanese Prime Minister, Kakuei Tanaka, students held a demonstration protesting corruption, high prices, and inequality in foreign investments.

Suharto's Golkar party won the 1971 Indonesian legislative election by forcing government employees to vote for them and promising funds to supportive constituencies.

[4] Enraged by Japan's competitive pressures on local businesses,[5] students burned effigies of Tanaka and Humardhani outside of Ali Murtopo's office.

[4] The next morning, thousands of students demonstrated in the streets of Jakarta, calling for lower prices, an end to corruption, and the disbanding of Aspri, Suharto's clique of personal assistants.

[4] More stores were looted, including "the most visible symbol of Japanese presence in Indonesia", an Astra dealership selling Toyota-brand cars on Sudirman Street.

Stores in Glodok, owned by ethnic Chinese, were looted, vandalized, destroyed, and burned; the largest being the Senen shopping complex.

[8] Later that evening, Hariman Siregar, president of the Student Body of the University of Indonesia, called for an end to the riots via TVRI, saying "this wasn't our intent".

[7] After the Malari incident, the New Order became more repressive and quicker to act when citizens expressed dissent, including through demonstrations[12] and the media, abandoning the fragile "partnership" they once had.

[13] Within a week of the Malari incident, the New Order presented a package of regulations meant to promote the economic interests of Native Indonesians.

[6] Jeffrey Winters notes that the greatest fear of the Indonesian politicians at the time was an uprising of the millions of urban and rural poor.