Violence continues in Makassar over fuel price hike
MAKASSAR, South Sulawesi (JP): Chaos and brutality continued here on Tuesday as thousands of students protesting the fuel price hike vandalized the governor's office, burned more cars and clashed with provincial administration civil servants.
Dozens of students were injured in the disturbances, which started at 11:30 a.m. local time when thousands of students from various universities tried forcibly to break through a police cordon and invade the gubernatorial compound.
The students, disappointed over failing to meet Governor HZ Palaguna, turned more violent after local civil servants detained and beat AM Yusuf Bakri, who was about to negotiate with the security forces.
"Seconds later the students threw stones at the governor's office before they entered the office compound and smashed the doors and windows of the building," an eyewitness said.
The vandalism, which lasted for about 10 minutes, left ten students injured.
In retaliation for the earlier beating, the students detained two local employees, Gunawan and Habuddin, at about 4 p.m.
Later, after darkness had fallen, the students hijacked two official cars belonging to the governors' office. No news was forthcoming as to the whereabouts of the two kidnapped civil servants and the two cars.
The students said they could not excuse the civil servants' action in detaining and beating their colleague for unclear reasons.
Before the clash with the officers, the students rallied and blockaded most of the main streets in Makassar. They burned a car belonging to the governor's office and destroyed another car belonging to Pelni, the state-owned shipping company.
Makassar City Police chief Sr. Supt. Aryanto Boedihardjo regretted the clash, saying that the students had gone too far. He said the police would act firmly to deal with any further anarchy.
Separately, Governor Palaguna said he supported the South Sulawesi people's move to reject the fuel price hike, but he said that vandalism and such rebellious actions were not to be condoned.
Strike
In the West Java town of Bogor, some 50 kilometers from Jakarta, hundreds of public transport drivers went on strike, demanding that councillors approve a 40-percent hike in fares from the current level of Rp 500.
The drivers said the 12-percent hike in the fuel price had forced them to increase fares. Hundreds of public transit vehicles, called angkot, had been jamming the main thoroughfares, such as Jl. Kapten Muslihat and Jl. Pajajaran, and around the Air Mancur area, since morning.
The drivers met with the council speaker, M. Said, who said that the council had agreed to raise fares to Rp 600.
The non-violent strike ended soon after the meeting.
In Atambua, East Nusa Tenggara, people complained about rocketing fuel prices.
Local resident Lukas Carvalho told Antara that a drum of kerosene (containing 190 liters) now cost Rp 95,000, or Rp 22,500 more than the old price.
"Kerosene now costs between Rp 600 and Rp 700 per liter," Carvalho said.
In Bandung, poultry businesses used the fuel price hike to increase the price of Day Old Chicks (DOC) from Rp 2,500 to Rp 3,000 each.
An specialist with the Indonesian Poultry Breeders' Association, Ashwin Pulungan, told reporters on Monday that the increase was unreasonable. "The price of Day Old Chicks has nothing to do with fuel prices," Pulungan said, adding that he assumed the increase was a trick by the businessmen.
"The DOC price has increased three times since July. It was Rp 1,500 each in July, then Rp 2,500 and now Rp 3,000," he said.
According to Pulungan, the poultry business had been monopolized by certain big companies. "Unfortunately the government has never taken the necessary steps to deal with this." (27/21/25/sur)