Workers and students stage protest at Merdeka Palace<\/p>\n
Maria Endah Hulupi and Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Thousands of workers and students staged a rally in front of
\nMerdeka Palace, Central Jakarta, on Thursday to demand that the
\ngovernment annul the utility price hikes introduced on the first
\nday of the new year.<\/p>\n
\"Bring down the prices, reduce electricity and telephone
\ntariffs,\" the workers shouted in front of the tightly-guarded
\ncompound.<\/p>\n
The government raised electricity and telephone tariffs on
\nJan. 1 and removed fuel subsidies as part of its efforts to
\nfinance the state budget and reduce deficits.<\/p>\n
The workers, however, charged that the simultaneous price
\nhikes would bring more suffering to the people whose purchasing
\npower had diminished since the economic crisis struck the country
\nin 1997.<\/p>\n
\"The government has to review this policy...decrease the
\nutility prices, or you two (Megawati and Hamzah Haz) have to step
\ndown,\" a protester yelled, waving a banner that read: \"Increasing
\nprices means killing the people\".<\/p>\n
Over 500 police personnel were deployed to monitor the
\nprotests, including around 200 police who stood guard in front of
\nMerdeka Palace.<\/p>\n
\"Megawati-Hamzah Haz, use your brains,\" read one placard.
\nCalls have been mounting for the pair to resign.<\/p>\n
\"The government has to cancel their stupid decision to raise
\nthe price of fuel,\" a protester shouted through a megaphone.<\/p>\n
The House of Representatives approved the increases last year
\nto meet demands by foreign creditors for fiscal belt-tightening.
\nSome estimates say the higher prices could throw as many as three
\nmillion people into poverty by the subsequent rise in the prices
\nof food and transportation.<\/p>\n
Aside from workers and students, youth wings of some political
\nparties also took part in the rally, displaying the biggest
\nchallenge so far to the leadership of Megawati, who took over as
\npresident in July 2001.<\/p>\n
The protesters would have entered the grounds of Merdeka
\nPalace had the police not placed a barbed wire barrier along Jl.
\nMedan Merdeka Utara.<\/p>\n
A scuffle broke out when police from the Mobile Brigade
\n(Brimob) unit attacked a vehicle carrying the protester's sound
\nsystem. Two students and one security officer reportedly suffered
\nminor injuries.<\/p>\n
Dita Indah Sari, a labor activist from the National Front for
\nthe Struggle of Indonesian Workers (FNPBI), deplored the fact
\nthat the government had ignored the plight of the middle and
\nlower classes and turned a deaf ear to public demands.<\/p>\n
\"It's a declaration of war. The government is challenging the
\npublic to bow to its (unpopular) decisions,\" she said, adding
\nthat such decisions forced the public to express their
\ndissatisfaction through inappropriate means.<\/p>\n
FNPBI and other elements of society, Dita said, were planning
\nto seize gas stations belonging to Megawati's husband,
\nbusinessman Taufik Kiemas, as a symbolic act of public resistance
\nagainst Megawati's government, and to occupy State Logistics
\nAgency (Bulog) and use the food stored there to feed the poor.<\/p>\n
\"We fully support their moves to take over control of such
\nstrategic facilities,\" she added.<\/p>\n
\"The price hike is insupportable. We cannot cope with the
\nincreased living costs,\" said Maladi, one of the 150 protesters
\ngrouped under the Solidarity of National Workers (Sopan),
\naffiliated to Amien Rais's National Mandate Party (PAN).<\/p>\n
By late afternoon, most of the Jakarta demonstrators had
\ndispersed.<\/p>\n
\"We will continue to hold protests until the government
\nresponds to our demands. Otherwise, we won't be able to eat three
\ntimes a day and we will refuse to pay taxes, electricity and the
\ntelephone bills,\" Maladi said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/workers-and-students-stage-protest-at-merdeka-palace-1447893297",
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