Thousands to demonstrate for Riau islands province
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Social and economic activities in four islands in Riau is expected to lay down on Thursday when thousands of people take to the streets in the biggest rallies ever, to demand for a separate province.
The Preparatory Committee for the Establishment of Riau Island Province has issued circulars suggesting that shops and other business centers, food stalls, government offices and other institutions in Batam, Natuna, Karimun and Tanjungpinang islands come to a halt during the rallies.
"It is feared that certain people will take advantage of the rallies with vandalism, looting and other violent acts," the circular said.
The committee also called on people to keep peace and order intact during the rallies, which are aimed at mounting pressure on the House of Representatives to approve their demand.
People in the islands were seen bracing for the rallies by parading banners along the thoroughfares of their towns, which stated their demand for immediate establishment of a separate province from the Riau mainland.
The banners, some of them over 15 meters in length, were mostly found in the main business areas, Antara reported.
"God willing, the new province of Riau Islands will soon be born," one of the banners said. Another banner says: "Never mind a province, we shall strive for a new state."
The people will take to the streets on Thursday to renew their demand for a separate province. Some of them have planned to dispose of public objects which have become the symbols of the Riau province.
In Tanjungpinang, a local figure, Supriyadi Parengrengi, said pro-new province residents would burn effigies of Governor Saleh Djasit, the provincial legislature speaker Chaidir and his deputy Wan Abubakar and a member of the Riau regional autonomy oversight board Tabrani Rab.
"Those effigies will be burnt down simultaneously to express our anger to their discouragement of our demand," Supriyadi, who calls himself the commander of Riau Islands Province Defenders, said recently.
He warned that Jakarta's failure to heed the May 2 rally would only heighten tension in the islands, which could lead to anarchic moves, including the closure of all accesses to the island and blockade of government institutions there.
Chairman of the Preparatory Committee of Riau Islands Province Huzrin Hood has set a May 13 deadline for the House to arrange a plenary session to approve the bill on the new province. The House will resume its sitting period on that date.
If the House fails to meet the deadline, Huzrin said he would resign.
The House formed a special committee to draft a bill on the formation of Riau islands province. The committee approved the bill late in January, but has yet to propose a plenary House session to endorse the bill.
Chairman of the committee, Handjojo Putro of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle said the establishment of the new province did not need approval from Riau governor or the province's legislature.
A group of former kings in Riau issued a joint statement on Jan. 28, opposing the plan to form the new province. They said the plan carried political interests of certain people, and defied both the law and long-standing Malay customs.