Protesters urge nationwide boycott of tax, utility payments
Protesters urge nationwide boycott of tax, utility payments
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
Calls for a national boycott on taxes and utility bills, and for
the resignations of President Megawati Soekarnoputri and her
deputy Hamzah Haz, mounted across the archipelago on Thursday as
nationwide protests heated up against fuel, electricity and
telephone price hikes.
Most street demonstrations in the majority of provinces
proceeded peacefully. A minor clash broke out in Jakarta, while
two protesters sustained shot wounds in a scuffle with police in
the West Java town of Karawang.
Around 400 businesspeople, joined by leaders of various labor
unions and student groups, held rallies in the country's second
largest city of Surabaya, threatening to not pay taxes in protest
against the price rises.
The threat was made publicly by the head of the East Java
Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), Erlangga
Satriagung, who led the group of protesting businesspeople.
"Businessmen have made maximum efforts to improve efficiency
and reduce profit margins. If we continue to be suffocated, we
will also be forced into massive lay-offs," he said.
Echoing Kadin's threat was chairman of the province's
Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) Wiem Pattirajawane, who
said association members would boycott tax payments and mobilize
huge demonstrations should the central government refuse to
reverse the increases.
"We will all go to the President to lodge a protest," he
shouted during the rally at the East Java legislative council.
Similarly, thousands of students in the South Sulawesi capital
of Makassar urged the people not to pay electricity and telephone
bills until their demands were heeded.
"Boycotts are the only way to oppose a government that has
turned deaf and no longer cares for the people's concerns," said
M. Arief, a protest leader from Indonesian Muhammadiyah
University (UMI).
During the peaceful rally, the protesters again head briefly a
fuel truck belonging to state-owned oil company Pertamina.
Around 7,000 other protesters, mostly students, marched to
several strategic places in Medan, North Sumatra, demanding that
the price hikes be annulled, or for Megawati and Hamzah Haz to
resign.
The Indonesian Prosperity Trade Union (SBSI), one of the
groups involved in the protests, also urged the government to
cancel its Release and Discharge policy exonerating big debtors
of legal charges, and its decision to sell state-owned
telecommunications firm PT Indosat.
A call for the two national leaders to step down was also
raised by protesters in the West Java city of Cirebon, the
province of Yogyakarta, Padang in West Sumatra, Palu in Central
Sulawesi and several other cities, who accused Megawati and
Hamzah of failing to run the country and to show concern for the
people.
In the West Java capital of Bandung, hundreds of demonstrators
distributed thousands of leaflets urging the nation to shun tax
and utility bill payments.
Street rallies were also reported in Aceh, Manado in North
Sulawesi, Purwokerto in Central Java, and other cities and towns
on the islands of Java, Bali and Sumatra.
Most of these nationwide protests, now in their fourth
consecutive day on Thursday, were smaller than the 25,000
predicted by a coalition of workers, students and politicians.
Rally organizers, however, threatened to stage more
demonstrations in upcoming days until their demands were heard.
The protests began on Monday, but the government has refused
to undo the price increases, which range from 6 percent for
electricity to 22 percent for fuel.
The government has said it planned to spend Rp 4 trillion
(US$450 million) to compensate the poor for the increased prices
through seven sectors, including education and health. Officials
have also said they were considering tax cuts aimed at helping
businesses that might be hurt by the price hikes.
Among the proposals is a plan to reduce the luxury tax on as
many as 20 items.