Oscar Grenfell
Large student protests continued in Jakarta and other major Indonesian centres on Monday and Tuesday in defiance of violent police repression and strident denunciations by senior ministers in the government of President Joko Widodo.
The demonstrations, which grew last week to become some of the largest student mobilisations in two decades, are in opposition to attempts by the parliament to introduce a regressive new criminal code and the passage in September of legislation defanging the official anti-corruption body.
Protesters have also raised broader issues, including a call for an end to “militarism” in Papua and West Papua, amid a brutal army crackdown in those provinces, and demands for government action to put an end to massive peat fires that are enveloping the major cities with a toxic haze.
The protests have continued, despite Widodo’s postponement of any parliamentary vote on the criminal code, which includes a raft of anti-democratic measures criminalising various sexual activities, and explicitly anti-communist provisions.
Student protesters in Jakarta on Monday, Credit: @kaylstr (Twitter)
On Monday afternoon, thousands of student and youth protesters marched towards the House of Representatives compound in central Jakarta. Unlike during rallies the previous week, they were blocked from approaching the building by police barricades and heavily-armed officers. The protest coincided with the final plenary session of the parliamentary body, for the 2014 to 2019 term.
During the clashes that ensued when protesters sought to breach the barricade, hundreds were injured, while hundreds more were detained. Police allegedly used a barrage of tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, prompting mass panic.
Jakarta authorities acknowledged 210 injuries. A hospital spokesman told the Jakarta Post that 38 of those wounded were taken to Partamina Hospital in South Jakarta. In an indication of the demographics of the emerging movement, 22 of them were university students and nine were high school pupils.
Skirmishes continued into the evening, with police claiming that protesters threw rocks at them and resisted dispersal. The following day, authorities announced that they had arrested some 519 people, who were being subjected to questioning to determine whether or not they were students.
The mass-roundup follows police violence last week, including arrests of prominent artists critical of the government and a brutal crackdown on protests. Police agencies have also been scouring social media to identify “troublemakers.”
On Thursday, two students were killed in the town of Kendari in South Sulawesi, after police attacked demonstrations there. While the exact circumstances of their deaths are not clear, one of the students was shot and another had received major head injuries. The fatalities occurred the same day that Amnesty International Indonesia called for an urgent investigation into “mass police violence” against the demonstrations.
The government has responded by branding the protesters as “rioters,” and accusing them of seeking to disrupt the ceremonial presidential and parliamentary inaugurations that occurred earlier this week.
Attempts to dampen-down the unrest, however, may be further complicated by plans by tens of thousands of workers to take strike and protest action on Wednesday next week.
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