Students rally to demand lower food prices
Students rally to demand lower food prices
JAKARTA (JP): Around 500 students staged a rally on the
roundabout outside Hotel Indonesia in Central Jakarta on
Wednesday to demand a reduction in the price of basic foodstuffs
and the establishment of what they called the Indonesian people's
committee.
The students, who were grouped in Forum Kota -- a loose
association of students from 37 universities and colleges in the
Greater Jakarta area -- sat around the fountain in the center of
the roundabout singing protest songs.
They waved banners daubed with slogans such as: "Lower prices!
We reject the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) extraordinary
session", "Forum Kota moves with conscience", "Stop violence
against people", "Stop pitting us against each other", "Mister,
we're hungry", "Set up a transitional government immediately",
"Our babies are suffering from malnutrition, bring down the price
of milk".
On Tuesday, students from the Communication Forum of the
Jakarta Student Senate staged their own rally to demand the
removal of members of the People's Consultative Assembly who were
appointed through nepotism.
Forum Kota's spokesman Noel said on Wednesday that the
students had felt compelled to remind the government about the
spirit of reform.
"The situation in the reform era is becoming ever more
uncertain. Killings are occurring everywhere, including in
Banyuwangi. We are against it," Noel told reporters.
He said the students wanted to see the establishment of the
Indonesian People's Committee, a forum which they said should
consist of leading public figures like Abdurrahman Wahid, the
chairman of 30 million-strong Nahdlatul Ulama, Megawati
Soekarnoputri, the leader of a faction in the splintered
Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) and Amien Rais, the chairman of
the National Mandate Party (PAN).
"We have not set any timetable. The students constitute a
forceful movement ... we don't have any vested interests," Noel
added.
He said the forum would not oppose the 1999 general election
if it was not abused by those in power.
"We will support the general election if it is not used to
advance any hidden agendas," said Noel, a 23-year-old student
from the Institute of Social and Political Sciences in South
Jakarta.
Noel reiterated that the forum was not communist in nature and
insisted that it did not have communist backing either.
"We are not communists. The suggestion that we are communists
is a stigma placed upon us by the New Order regime," he said.
After circling the fountain in the middle of the roundabout,
the students then marched off towards Matraman in East Jakarta.
Earlier in the day, police officers used rattan sticks to herd
20 student demonstrators back from the gates of the Ministry of
Defense and Security. Most of students were from the National
Institute of Science and Technology in South Jakarta,
The students were attempting to protest against the military's
handling of the mysterious killing spree in East Java.
The group burst out off the nearby National Monument Square
waving national flags and shouting: "Our friends in Banyuwangi
are being killed, what are you going to do about it."
Scuffles ensued as the officers tried to grab banners the
students had brought with them. No injuries were reported.
(ivy/emf)