Students hit streets again, creating traffic jams

JAKARTA (JP): More than 1000 students and activists grouped under the Greater Jakarta Students Movement (Gema Jaya) and the Committee for Oppressed People (Karat) rallied at the Hotel Indonesia roundabout and the State Palace on Wednesday.

Gema Jaya student activists, coming from seven universities, arrived at the roundabout with 25 metromini buses at 5 p.m, causing heavy congestion.

Ten minutes later, Karat activists from two universities and various community activists from different parts of the city, arrived at the roundabout in 20 buses.

Some of the students then distributed handouts to passing motorists and staged speeches.

The students left the roundabout at 5:30 p.m. for the state palace and then dispersed peacefully at dusk.

Gema coordinator Ratno Yulianto told The Jakarta Post inside a minivan that led the bus convoy that they wanted to press for the establishment of a transitional government as the current government was proven ineffective in carrying out the reform agenda.

Before the establishment of such a transitional government, Ratno said President Abdurrahman Wahid would have to disband the legislature and establish a new body that would represent the people and then he must resign.

He said that the legislature must be disbanded because they were controlled by people who were part of the New Order. He noted that meant 70 percent of legislators at the House of Representatives and People's Consultative Assembly.

The transitional government, according to the Gema activists, would then be required to rid the bureaucracy of all remnants of the New Order regime. He said about 80 percent of people who currently work for the government remained the same as those under the New Order regime.

He noted that most of the institutions in the country were still controlled by New Order people, including the military, the police, judicial bodies, the media, and also non-governmental organizations.

"Therefore, there is only one way to solve all the problems in this country: systemic revolution, changing the New Order governmental system to a system that really sides with the people," he remarked, without giving any explanation on the new system. (01)