Ratna Sarumpaet (born 16 July 1949) is an Indonesian human rights activist, theatrical producer, actress, film director, and writer.

As she became increasingly concerned about her marriage and unhappy about the local theatre scene, two years later Sarumpaet left her troupe and began to work in television; she only returned in 1989, after divorcing her abusive husband.

Increasingly disillusioned by the autocratic acts of Suharto's New Order government, during the 1997 legislative elections Sarumpaet and her troupe led pro-democracy protests.

After her release, Sarumpaet continued to participate in pro-democracy movements; these actions led to her fleeing Indonesia after hearing rumours that she would be arrested for dissent.

She became head of the Jakarta Art Board in 2003; two years later she was approached by UNICEF and asked to write a drama to raise awareness of child trafficking in Southeast Asia.

In his biography, her classmate Chrisye recalled that Sarumpaet was very confident; he noted that she enjoyed writing poetry and then reading it in a loud voice while other students were engaging in other activities.

[7][9] In 1974 she founded Satu Merah Panggung Theater, which performed adaptations of foreign works such as the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet – in the latter, Sarumpaet played the titular role.

After her divorce, which took several years and required records of her broken ribs to satisfy the religious courts, she returned to theatre in 1989 with a performance of Shakespeare's Othello.

[5] The stageplay was based on the 1993 murder of Marsinah, a labour rights leader from East Java, and explored issues of political repression.

[9] After Marsinah, Sarumpaet and Satu Merah Panggung performed several other politically themed dramas, including Terpasung (Chained; 1995), about male dominance and violence against women, and Pesta Terakhir (The Last Party; 1996), about the funeral of a dictator without any mourners.

Her pre-trial motion complaining about irregularities in the arrest, including the lack of a warrant, was dismissed by the court; a judge on the case commented that "singing 'Indonesia Raya' and '[Padamu Negeri]' is proof of their political crime".

[14] Towards the end of 1998, with the political situation in Indonesia increasingly unstable and Sarumpaet rumoured to be wanted for stirring up dissent, she fled to Europe via Singapore.

In December 2002 it was scheduled to be broadcast on TVRI in commemoration of Human Rights Day, but pulled at the last minute due to intervention from the military.

[16] Two years after her selection, Sarumpaet was approached by UNICEF and asked to do a survey of child trafficking in Southeast Asia and promote awareness of the problem.

[28] In June 2014, Sarumpaet was upset by a Time magazine article that criticized a music video with Nazi overtones made by Indonesian rock singer Ahmad Dhani in support of 2014 presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto and his running mate Hatta Rajasa.

The article, headlined "This Indonesian Nazi Video Is One of the Worst Pieces of Political Campaigning Ever", was written by reporter Yenni Kwok.

On the morning of 2 December 2016, Sarumpaet was arrested at a Jakarta hotel on suspicions of being part of a group allegedly plotting a coup against President Joko Widodo's administration.

[40] According to police, Ratna paid for the plastic surgery from the same bank account that had been used to collect money for the victims of the June 2018 Lake Toba ferry disaster.

She revealed that she deliberately made the hoax to hide her facial surgery from her child as well as to take people's emotional and political situations to gain significant attention and popularity.