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)