Golkar deplores students demo

SEMARANG: Golkar deplored students from a local Islamic university on Tuesday for conducting a rowdy demonstration, which included burning the party's flags.

"They are free to despise Golkar, but they cannot show it by that kind of demonstration and burning Golkar's flags. It is an insult to us," Hartoyo Abdullah, chief of the party's faction in the legislative council, said.

About 150 students from the Walisongo State Academy of Islamic Studies (IAIN) participated in a protest on Monday, calling for Golkar's dissolution and for a purge of Golkar elements within the provincial administration.

The students said they doubted Golkar's reform credentials because the party was responsible for the country's current woes.

Hartoyo said the students should not have been so easily provoked.

"I believe the students were simply following orders from a puppet master. What is the strength of hundreds of students compared to the millions who voted for us," he said. (har/bby)