Anti-govt protests continue across the country
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Street protests continued into their fifth day across the archipelago on Friday in a reaction against the rise in fuel prices, electricity and telephone charges as President Megawati Soekarnoputri's government stood its ground.
There were no reports of the kind of violence that occurred in similar nationwide rallies on Thursday when rock-throwing protesters clashed with baton-wielding police in Jakarta and security officers shot two students in the West Java town of Karawang.
Some 10,000 students from various universities in the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar marched downtown again on Friday to put pressure on Megawati and her deputy Hamzah Haz to reverse the utility charges increase or resign.
It was the largest protest yet against the increase in fuel prices and telephone and electricity charges in crisis-battered Indonesia.
The pictures of Megawati and Hamzah were removed from the walls at the South Sulawesi tourism and culture office during a rally on Jl. Dr. Ratulangi. No resistance was reported from civil servants working there.
Other demonstrators tried to follow suit during separate protests at Sahid Hotel and the office of state-owned electricity firm PT PLN in Makassar. However, before they arrived there, the pictures of the two top national leaders had already been removed by officials.
"This action of removing their pictures is to show that the government has lost public trust and credibility," Sukirman, a protest leader, shouted.
There were reports of Megawati's pictures and effigies being burned as happened during previous rallies this week.
Police are preparing criminal charges against anti-government protesters in several cities, who allegedly burnt pictures of Megawati.
Megawati recently slammed protesters who she said had "insulted the symbols of the state", while the National Police chief said on Friday the burning of pictures of the President was a crime punishable by law.
In Jakarta, some 5,000 students staged separate protests after Friday prayers with the biggest crowd outside the presidential palace.
They demanded that the price rises be revoked and the government be disbanded.
The protesters said the government must send corrupt debtors to prison because they had made the people suffer. Megawati recently endorsed the release and discharge policy so that they would not face criminal charges.
The demonstrators shouted a call for a "social revolution".
Smaller protests took place in the nation's second biggest city of Surabaya, the Central Java capital of Semarang, Bandung in West Java, Yogyakarta province and the North Sumatra capital of Medan.
Similar rallies were also reported in many other cities and towns in Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi, Bali, Lombok and Maluku islands. All proceeded peacefully.
Thousands of protesters chanted anti-government slogans and urged legislative councils to come out against the increases.
Last year, the House of Representatives endorsed the utility price rises to bow to demands by the country's foreign creditors for fiscal belt-tightening.
Now many legislators, including People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Amien Rais, have changed their minds and joined protesters' demands in an apparent move to woo public support ahead of the 2004 elections.
Economists and other analysts say the steep increases will make the low- and middle-income earners suffer. According to some estimates, the higher prices could push some three million people into poverty.
The government has refused to roll back the increases, but said it will speed up the disbursement of Rp 4.4 trillion (US$450 million) to offset expected increases in transportation prices and to keep the price of rice steady.
It is also considering trillions of rupiah in tax cuts aimed at helping businesses. Among the proposals is a plan to reduce the luxury tax on as many as 20 items including cellular phones and electronics.