Anti-govt protests continue across the country

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.