Students keep up demands for reforms and lower prices

JAKARTA (JP): Thousands of students from at least nine universities throughout Java staged on-campus demonstrations Saturday, continuing their calls for immediate government reforms and lower prices for basic goods.

The demonstrations, some of which continued until yesterday, ended a week-long series of protests staged by students in more than 20 universities across Indonesia.

Dozens of students from state-run Walisongo Islamic Institute in the Central Java capital of Semarang continued their protest yesterday against the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities by fasting.

The protesters have been living in a makeshift tent they set up on the campus' grounds Friday.

Dozens of students of Communications Science Academy (STIK) in Semarang prayed together yesterday with their lecturers, asking God to help solve the current crisis, while hundreds of University of Diponegoro students donated dozens of sacks of sugar and rice to the needy living around their campus.

"The donation was collected in the form of cash from the students and lecturers of the School of Literature," Suparno, coordinator of the donation team, said.

In the Central Java city of Surakarta, students of Muhammadiyah University staged a free-speech forum at their campus Saturday, discussing the escalating prices of basic goods.

The protest was highlighted by the presence of Mudrick M. Sangidoe, controversial chairman of the Surakarta branch of the United Development Party.

Mudrick said that he fully supported the students' protest. "This is an expression of the students' concern for the people's suffering," he said.

Some 50 students of the state-run Sunan Ampel Islamic Institute in East Java's capital of Surabaya, protested Saturday by sealing their mouths with a photocopy of the Rp 50,000 note.

The protesting students were surrounded by posters and banners carrying harsh words blaming the government for the country's deepening crisis and accusing it of being "laden with corruption, collusion, manipulation and nepotism".

The protest was set to last until midnight Saturday.

Scores of police and troops were deployed outside the campus to prevent students from marching onto the streets.

A similar "silent protest" was performed by three students of Airlangga University, also in Surabaya. The protesting students have been on a hunger strike since Tuesday.

A student, on behalf of the protesters, said the action was to protest the country's "political elite and decisionmakers, who have so far shown no sign of responding to the students' expression of concern".

In Sumatra's Bengkulu province, hundreds of University of Bengkulu students rallied at their campus and staged a free- speech forum, calling on the government to lower prices of basic essentials.

As reported by Antara Saturday, they ended up selling tons of rice, sugar, cooking oil and other kinds of basic foodstuffs at below market prices to needy people around their campus.

The university's student senate chairman, Ali Syaftaini, was quoted by the news agency as saying: "We want the prices of the nine basic commodities to return to their initial levels. We will continue this cheap market, even after the General Session."

The 11-day General Session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) underway in Jakarta is scheduled to end Wednesday.

Four tons of rice, a ton of sugar and 500 kilograms of cooking oil -- all procured from the university's cooperative -- were sold to needy people near the campus, Ali said.

University spokesman Kanang S. Indarto said the cheap market was held by the students to express their concerns over the soaring prices of everyday items in the region.

Kanang said a group called Bengkulu Students Forum for the People's Economy had been established to help people buy cheap goods through "market operations".

In the West Java capital of Bandung, 5,000 Padjadjaran University students made speeches and held posters and banners during a mass gathering at their campus.

At nearby Bandung Institute of Technology, about 400 students held a peaceful free speech forum, the fourth straight day of protests at the school.

In Yogyakarta, 500 students of the state-run Kalijaga Islamic Institute, joined by scores of fellow students from nearby private-run Janabadra University and Atma Jaya Catholic University, also staged a free-speech forum.

Although the demonstrations in Bandung and Yogyakarta were not necessarily linked, they all demanded lower prices for basic commodities and sweeping political reforms. Tight security was seen outside all of the universities to block protesters from marching off their campuses. (23/nur/har/aan)