Student protest greets Habibie on visit to C. Java

Student protest greets Habibie on visit to C. Java

KENDAL, Central Java (JP): About 100 students staged a
demonstration here on Thursday to demand that President B.J.
Habibie take concrete measures to lower the price of staple
foods, even as the President was asserting his commitment to help
the poor in a ceremony a few hundreds meter away.

"End people's suffering," the students, who identified
themselves as the Indonesian Moslem Students Committee (KAMMI),
shouted in the direction of the gathering.

"The government is determined to prioritize the development of
human resources and the alleviation of poverty," the President
said in his speech, unaware of the demonstration outside the
venue.

Habibie visited Kendal to present scholarships for students
and financial assistance for schools worth Rp 140 billion (US$ 12
million) as part of the government's program to assist education
in the province.

The President also disclosed that the government has allocated
Rp 1.5 trillion (US$ 1.37 billion) to help millions of school
children and 500,000 university students in the 1998/1999 fiscal
year.

"The government has given scholarships to a total of four
million primary, junior, and senior high school students and
provided operational assistance to 130,000 schools throughout the
country," Habibie noted.

Habibie said he was very concerned about the number of
students dropping out of school and university as a result of the
economic crisis.

He noted that only 54 percent of the country's 40 million
children between the ages of seven and 15 were now attending the
compulsory nine years of education compared to 72.26 percent two
years ago.

"This figure is similar to the figure for five years ago. The
sharp decrease is really worrying us," the President noted.

The Rp 1.5 trillion fund is part of the country's social
safety net program which was established with the assistance of
donor agencies including the International Monetary Fund (IMF),
the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

The student demonstration did not disturb the ceremony.

In their banners, the students demanded Habibie lower the
price of basic commodities and punish corrupt officials,
especially those responsible for distributing foodstuffs.

In a separate meeting with 17 top Australian businessmen on
Thursday evening, the President reiterated his pledge to help
unfortunate students, saying that the future of the nation
depended on them.

"(Until now) we have never spent more than $1 billion on
education scholarships," the President boasted.

During the meeting, the entrepreneurs told Habibie that 91
percent of Australian companies with bases here had maintained
their operations throughout the economic crisis.

"We were here with you when you were in a pleasant condition
and we will remain with you during these difficult times," said
Leigh Purnell, the director of the Australian Industry Group.

"I must try to convince the other nine percent to come back to
Indonesia," the President replied to Purnell's statement.

The meeting was also attended by Sabam Siagian, who chairs the
Indonesia-Australia Business Council (IABAC), and Aburizal
Bakrie, the chairman of Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and
Industry. (har/prb)