Govt plays down fuel protests

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government played down on Tuesday demonstrations against looming fuel price increases, despite the fact that the protests were growing in frequency and gathering pace of late.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who is on an overseas trip to South Africa, said the government was not worried about the demonstrations.

"Such protests or demonstrations are common in a democratic country. The government is prepared to face all risks and impacts of the fuel price hike policy," he said as quoted by Antara.

The government plans to raise gasoline and diesel prices by Oct. 1, 2005, but has not revealed how much. The plan has triggered daily protests across Indonesia. The increase will be second time this year, after the March 1 hike.

Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Widodo Adi Sucipto also stated that the ongoing protests and rallies were still within the "normal and tolerable" levels.

"As long as the rallies abide by the rules and laws, they're just part of democracy. Such reactions are normal and we handle them," he said at his office in Jakarta.

The government is prepared to prevent some chaos and violence as Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono said the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police were fully prepared for that possibility.

As protests continued to escalate nationwide, so did the lines at filling stations in a number of cites across Java island as motorists rushed to get full tanks of gasoline or diesel.

In Yogyakarta, several stations reported shortages of gasoline and diesel, while hundreds of cars continued to wait at the few outlets with some fuel still for sale.

Thousands of students, meanwhile, took to the streets in the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar, carrying banners and burning tires in protest of the government's policy.

In Jakarta, dozens of people rallied outside the presidential palace.

Based on intelligence data, Jakarta military chief Maj. Gen. Agustadi SP said on Tuesday that massive demonstrations were expected to hit cities on Thursday.

"We've made available a company of soldiers to assist police in securing the capital. But we'll be ready to deploy more," he was quoted as saying by Antara.

As the government steels itself against the demonstrations, some figures have remained nearly silent, saying almost nothing could stop the government from implementing the price hike.

Regional Representative Council (DPD) deputy chairman La Ode Ida said demonstrations against the policy would only produce a significant effect if they were done by either besieging the state palace or the legislative complex, or any other action that might that bring the economy to a halt.

In attempt to allay public concern, the government is distributing money from an assistance fund to poor families to offset the fuel increase, because that hike would likely push up the prices of other daily basic necessities.

After completing the poverty registration, the government has promised to give each of the 15 million low-income families monthly payments of Rp 100,000 (approximately US$10) beginning next month to help ease their economic burden from the price rises.

The government has been forced to further cut trillions of rupiah worth of oil subsidy expenses due to the ballooning global oil prices. It has yet to announce the size of the fuel price hikes, but some officials have hinted that it could be a 50 percent to 70 percent increase.

Increasing the fuel price is a sensitive issue in this country, the world's fourth most populous. Mass riots sparked by a price rise in 1998 hastened the ouster of former dictator Soeharto. Former president Megawati Soekarnoputri was also forced to scale back an increase early in 2002 due to escalating protests nationwide.