Govt plays down fuel protests

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.