Students protest basic commodity price hikes
JAKARTA (JP): College students in North Sumatra and Central Sulawesi staged massive demonstrations yesterday demanding the government do more to bring down prices of basic goods.
In Central Sulawesi, hundreds of students took to the streets of the capital Palu, carrying posters and chanting slogans demanding prices be lowered.
They marched from Tadulako University campus along main thoroughfares to the provincial legislative council offices where they read out their demands, Antara reported.
Met by deputy council speaker Kenan Ismail of the Armed Forces faction, the protesters said prices of essential commodities in the province had jumped too much for most people.
The demonstration prompted many shops in the city to close yesterday because the owners were worried the protest would turn violent.
Local police chief Lt. Col. Adrizal Adnan said the authorities managed to control the situation.
In the North Sumatra capital Medan, a similar protest took place at the Sumatra Utara University campus.
The students included political reform, abolition of the subversion law, election of a new president and action against corrupt bureaucrats in their demands.
"Lower prices" and "Limit presidential power" read two of the numerous banners they hung all over the campus.
In a joint statement of seven student organizations read out by student Jannes Silitonga, the protesters also demanded economic reform and pledged support for the presidential campaigns of opposition figures Megawati Soekarnoputri, Amien Rais and Sri Bintang Pamungkas.
The demonstration ended with the students marching around the campus under the watchful eyes of security officers.
Demands for lower prices was also the theme of activists at Yogyakarta's Indonesian Islamic University. They urged Armed Forces Commander Gen. Feisal Tanjung to take punitive measures against people hoarding basic commodities.
"When the poor across the country cry for fulfillment of basic needs, hoarding commodities is an uncivilized act," the university's legal aid activists said in their statement.
"ABRI (the Armed Forces) should give hoarders a lesson and send a message to others that hoarding commodities doesn't pay."
Business activities in the East Nusa Tenggara town of Ende have slowly resumed although many Chinese traders who lost their property in Sunday's riot were still seeking refuge yesterday.
Security officers were still very conspicuous yesterday although the local government has guaranteed the situation is safe.
Deputy East Nusa Tenggara police chief Col. Salikin said he was aware that many people complained about having difficulty obtaining basic commodities following the riot.
Police have detained three people on charges of instigating the riot Sunday in which 21 shops were burned to the ground and 71 others damaged. Most of the affected premises were owned by entrepreneurs of Chinese descent.
Lay Ming, 46, who lost her shop and everything except the clothing she was wearing, called on the authorities to investigate the incident. She said she believed the cause was "more than just the rising prices".
She tearfully recalled how the crowd banged on her shop doors, dragged her out and looted her belongings.
Another trader, Tan Cui Min, 73, said the mob looted her shops and ran away in a boat to Ende island overlooking the town. (21/23/pan)