Students stage rally in academic gowns
JAKARTA (JP): Still wearing their academic gowns and carrying tubes containing their diplomas, a group of 128 new graduates from STMIK Indonesia computer college staged a rally at the Hotel Indonesia roundabout in Central Jakarta on Saturday.
During the peaceful midday demonstration, the graduates of the college, which is located on Jl. Kyai Tapa in Grogol, West Jakarta, expressed hopes that all student demonstrations would end peacefully.
The group arrived at the roundabout at 12:30 p.m. and circled it for 30 minutes to vent their frustrations before dispersing.
"This is spontaneous," said Sugeng, one of the new graduates.
He said the rally had taken place with the approval of the head of the college.
Some of Saturday's demonstrators were among the large group of students that occupied the House of Representative's building in May, he added.
The students called on the Armed Forces (ABRI) to return to its basic role of making the country as safe place to live in.
They voiced their strong support for peaceful reform and called for former president Soeharto to be brought to court to face charges of corruption.
With graduations traditionally involving all the family, parents and siblings joined in for the day to have a dig at the country's political elite. Some doting parents even took photographs of their beloved offspring demonstrating against the government.
"There is my husband, Pak Haji, the big one over there," said a 40-year-old woman pointing at a man sitting by the fountain in the center of the roundabout.
Before dispersing peacefully, the protesters sang songs, including the favorite "Hang, hang, hang Soeharto, hang Soeharto at Taman Lawang."
Taman Lawang is a renowned haunt of transvestites after dark.
At noon on Saturday, 300 students from Trisakti University in West Jakarta marched from Proklamasi Monument toward Soeharto's residence on Jl. Cendana in Central Jakarta.
They pushed past a police cordon on Jl. Cikini before being stopped by the military on Jl. Cut Mutia, not far from Jl. Cendana.
They carried banners reading: "Stop shooting and killing students and people", "ABRI's weapons are bought with the public's money. They're not for killing students and people."
"The students did not inform us of their intention to stage the rally," said Central Jakarta Police deputy chief Maj. Ronnie F. Sompie.
Maj. Agus Sutomo, the commander in charge of security in the area, commented: "What's the use of visiting Soeharto's house? If they want him to be tried, they should wait for him to be questioned at the Attorney General's Office next week."
Elsewhere in the city, 400 students from STAN administration college in Jurangmangu, South Jakarta, and Jayakarta vocational school in West Jakarta attempted to reach the House of Representatives on Jl. Gatot Subroto, but were stopped below the Taman Ria flyover, about 500 metres short of their objective.
"What are you going to do there anyway? The house is empty. It's Saturday. Don't you have any boyfriends and girlfriends to go and meet?," a police officer named Agus asked the students, to which one replied: "We go on a dates while protesting, Pak."
The students said they simply wanted to remind members of the House that they must fair in passing bills governing next year's general election.
Separately, representatives of dozens of universities in Java, Bali, Sumatra and Sulawesi established the Universities' Network for Observing the General Election in Jakarta on Saturday.
In their statement, the representatives said the network would focus on monitoring the process of the general election, which is scheduled to be held on June 7 next year. (ivy/edt/bsr)