Fuel price hike protests lose fire

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The protests against rises in fuel prices largely fizzled out on Wednesday in many cities across the country in what could been seen as one of the biggest political tests for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono since taking power last October.

However, the protests did not come to a complete end, and demonstrators continued to set fire to tires on the streets, seize passing fuel trucks and block roads, while public transportation drivers staged strikes in several cities to put pressure on the government to cancel the increases.

A clash broke out between 300 student protesters and police during a second day of protests in Cirebon, West Java. No casualties were reported but several activists were injured after falling during the melee.

The scuffles took place on Jl. Dharsono, which is part of the busy north coast highway connecting Jakarta and West Java.

It started after the students refused to release a truck carrying staple foodstuffs that they had seized during their protest. The protesters also blocked the road for five hours with burning tires until around 2 p.m.

The roadblock caused serious congestion, paralyzing traffic on Java's main highway.

Hundreds of policemen had to reroute vehicles along a number of alternative routes to ease.

Sporadic rallies also continued in several places across Makassar, South Sulawesi, including one quite near the private residence of Vice President Jusuf Kalla on Jl. Haji Bau.

However, the student protesters from the Alauddin State Institute of Islamic Studies (IAIN) were kept from getting too close to the residence as it was tightly guarded by police.

"We deliberately came to the Vice President's house as we consider this location to be as close to the State Palace as we can get in order to convey our views," a demonstrator said.

"Hey, SBY-JK, where is your promise to improve the lot of the common people," he added, referring to Susilo and Kalla.

Also in Makassar, public transportation drivers went on strike to demand that fares be increased following the fuel price rises that came into effect on Monday. The strike left thousands of commuters stranded along the city's main roads.

A clash nearly erupted between some of the strikers and the drivers of buses serving Hasanuddin University, who refused to offload their passengers and join the strike. However, the incident passed off peacefully.

A similar strike was staged in Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi, with striking drivers ordering non-participating drivers to offload their passengers and park their vehicles at the roadside.

Ashar, a striking driver, said he and his colleagues would continue protesting until their demands were heeded by the local government.

The Kendari administration and police were forced to deploy official vehicles to transport stranded passengers.

Similar boycotts were held by protesting drivers in other cities, including Riau capital Pekanbaru, Padang in West Sumatra, Purwokerto in Central Java and Kupang in East Nusa Tenggara.

During a noisy rally in Pekanbaru, more than 100 students from various universities in Riau stopped and seized a diesel tanker truck belonging to state-owned oil and gas firm Pertamina.

They demonstrators later marched to the province's legislative council, demanding that it put pressure on the House of Representatives to pass a motion of no confidence in the Susilo administration.

The protesters also urged the government to arrest big-time corrupters, whom they blamed for partly contributing to the fuel price hikes.

"Oil-rich Riau should not be made to suffer as a result of SBY's policies. It's the people in Jakarta who are corrupt, but we are also affected by this. We demand that SBY be unseated," shouted a student.

In Padang, over 100 public transportation drivers on the Pasar Raya-Tabing and Pasar Raya-Lubuk Buaya routes stopped work for more than three hours from 10 a.m.

As a result, hundreds of students and other passengers were stranded at bus stops. Some of them had to take taxis or ojek (motorcycle taxis) to get to their schools and workplaces.