Students protest basic commodity price hikes
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)