Student pledges to continue hunger strike
Student pledges to continue hunger strike
JAKARTA (JP): A student activist vowed yesterday to continue with the hunger strike he began on May 19, despite having collapsed once from dehydration.
Still weak after passing out on Wednesday, Prasetyadi Pancaputra of Airlangga University in Surabaya, turned up at the headquarters of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) hoping to air his grievances.
The 24-year-old student, speaking with trembling lips, said he would continue until the government meets all his demands, which include an ease of control over the media, a reduction in the prices of staple goods, an increase in the minimum wage to Rp 7,000 a day and the abolition of five political laws which he says are too restrictive.
Prasetyadi told The Jakarta Post that he was aware that his demands were lofty and that he would probably be dead before any of his demands were met.
Accompanied by colleagues from the University of Indonesia, the student of social and political sciences at Airlangga was preparing to camp outside the PDI headquarters.
"We chose this party because it's always been sympathetic to efforts such as ours, which is the struggle for democracy," Prasetyadi said. "The other two political groups, Golkar and the United Development Party, usually are not too responsive."
Prasetyadi said he drew his inspiration from the non-violent struggles of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King.
He has been camping out at several places, including the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, the University of Indonesia campus and the House of Representatives building.
"Other forms of struggle, such as demonstration, are already branded as disturbances to order," he said. "This way, nobody can say I'm disturbing peace and order."
He collapsed on the fifth day when he was trying to meet some legislators. He was brought to St. Carolus Hospital after blood started coming out of his nose and mouth and received six bottles medicine intravenously.
He started to drink water again at the insistence of the physicians treating him. "They said my not drinking anything could affect my kidneys, so I have started to drink a little again," he said. He was spotted drinking a bottle of iced-tea yesterday.
Prasetyadi first started the hunger strike by sealing his lips symbolically with cellophane tape to protest the arrest of three activists from an independent journalist association.
Since then, he has gradually added other causes to his protest.
The sixth of seven children from a Protestant family, Prasetyadi said hunger strikes do not go against his religious convictions.
"I'm optimistic that my voice will eventually be heard," he said. "What if I die before the government heeds either of my demands? That's the wish of God."
Dedi Handoko, in his last year of UI Law School, said that Prasetyadi's demands, though lofty, are reasonable. "He's not just making them all up," he said.
Dedi said there are many students who are sympathetic to Prasetyadi's way and willing to support him.
"Any form of struggle for democratization should be supported," he said. (swe)