Peaceful sphere vital during Session: Betawi
JAKARTA (JP): About 1,000 members of Masyarakat Betawi (Native Jakartans) staged a peaceful rally in front of Hotel Indonesia on Sunday calling for peace and calm during the General Session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).
The protesters marched from the Semanggi cloverleaf to the Hotel Indonesia roundabout at about 3 p.m. They chanted Allahu Akbar (Allah the Great) and Shalawat (pray for Prophet Muhammad) on the way to Hotel Indonesia, which drew the attention of passersby.
Arriving at the Hotel Indonesia roundabout at 4.15 p.m., they unfurled posters and banners rejecting all forms of violence committed by parties pursuing political interests. "The Betawi don't want Jakarta to be shattered with blood," read one banner.
"We are here to show that the Betawi are peace lovers. We will expel provocateurs who try to steer Jakarta into chaos," Habib Umar Al Hamid, the rally coordinator, announced before the protesters.
Hundreds of police personnel stood guard, along with some security members of the Betawi group, inside the Hotel Indonesia compound. The hotel is hosting some of the MPR members.
Scores of security personnel, grouped under the Tanah Abang Big Family Union (IKBT), guarded the protesters.
Yusuf Mu'i, the IKBT chairman, said the group shared similar concern with the protesters in bringing peace to Jakarta during the General Session.
The 700-member MPR is set to elect a new president on Oct. 20, an agenda with a potential risk of conflict among supporters of each presidential candidate.
A female protester, Aziz Fachiah, called on students to stay away from violent protests in a bid to create a peaceful condition during the MPR General Session.
"We should use our logic in airing our demands instead of violence," Aziz, a student at Islamic University As Syafi'iyah in South Jakarta, said.
In a statement made available to the media, protesters urged the city's security authority to take stern measures to curb provocateurs and rioters which might disrupt peace and order in the city.
The protesters dispersed peacefully after a half hour rally.
Fact-finding
Separately, a fact-finding team probing the violent Sept. 24 incident said on Sunday that security personnel unintentionally shot into the crowd as earlier claimed.
"The bullet did not directly enter the victim, Yap Yun Hap. It bounced off a wall or an iron bar before hitting the victim's body," said Dadan Umar Daihani, the secretary of the team, in a media conference at Kedai Tempo in East Jakarta.
"The bullet did not deeply penetrate in a vertical direction into Yun Hap's body," he said.
Dadan said the bullet penetrated the victim as he went in the opposite direction of some moving trucks carrying security personnel on Jl. Jend. Sudirman on Friday night, Sept. 24. He was trying to avoid bullets allegedly fired by security personnel in a random shooting.
In a previous media conference, the coordinator of the team, political researcher Hermawan Sulistyo, said two convoys of between seven and eight trucks carrying security personnel passed along the street some 10 minutes apart. He added that the shooting which took the life of Yun Hap, a University of Indonesia student, happened as the first convoy passed. The location of the shooting was at the tip of Jl. Garnizun, an area between Plaza Central and Atma Jaya University on the main road of Jl. Jend. Sudirman in Central Jakarta.
The shooting, which claimed at least six lives, was held a day after students conducted a mass rally to reject the state security bill which was agreed by the House of Representatives members to be passed as a law. (asa)