Jakarta – The Indonesian Women's Alliance (API) held a peaceful demonstration in front of the House of Representatives (DPR) building in Central Jakarta on Wednesday September 3. According to CNN Indonesia's monitoring, they held a demonstration right in front of the main gate to the parliament complex.
The protesters wore uniform pink clothing. Numerous groups were also seen distributing free food and drinks to protesters. There were around a hundred protesters who were present at the location, which was dominated by women.
One of the speakers standing on the command vehicle demanded that the police release all the demonstrators who are still being detained. In addition to this, they also strongly criticised the performance of state officials who were deemed to have failed in managing the country.
"Because the destruction of this nation is because of them, not the ordinary Indonesian people", they said. "Long live the people, long live women, long live workers!", they added.
Arrest of activists
The arrest of several rights activists following the wave of demonstrations recently has sparked reactions from civil society groups.
Amnesty International Indonesia Executive Director Usman Hamid has called for criticism and concern over the increasing number of deaths related to demonstrations and the arrest of human rights activists.
"We deplore the increasing number of deaths related to last week's demonstrations, as well as the arrests of Delpedro Marhaen in Jakarta, Khariq Anhar in Banten, Syahdan Husein in Bali, and two legal representatives from the YLBHI [Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation] in Manado and Samarinda", Hamid said in a statement on Tuesday September 3.
Hamid also criticised symptoms of the deployment of the civilian security force Pam Swakarsa, which has the potential to fuel horizontal conflicts in society. He argued that this shows that the state is choosing an authoritarian and repressive approach over a democratic and persuasive one.
The charges against the activists also employed rubber (vague catchall) articles that up until have been used to justify silencing criticism. "This must stop. Release them", said Hamid.
Hamid emphasised that the state must optimise democratic, persuasive and dialogue-based policing approaches with protesters, as called for by the United Nations Human Rights Office.
The threat of legal punishment only escalates tensions between the police (Polri) and critics. People have the right to assemble and express their opinions in public, as these are basic human rights.
"Once again, we urge Polri to release Delpedro, Syahdan and hundreds of other protesters who have been arrested simply for speaking out critically since August 25", he said.
Accused of spreading incitement
Metro Jaya Jakarta Regional Police (Polda) Public Relations Division Head Senior Commissioner Ade Ary stated in Jakarta that Lokataru Foundation (LF) Executive Director Delpedro Marhaen Rismansyah (DMR), a Lokataru Foundation staff member with the initials MS and four other suspects spread incitement aimed at students through social media platforms.
According to Ary, the incitement they conveyed via social media encouraged students and children to take part in riots that could endanger their safety at the locations.
"The perpetrator DMR was the administrator of the LF Instagram account, whose role was to collaborate with other accounts to spread calls and incite students to commit anarchic acts through various hash tags and posts", said Ary in Jakarta on Tuesday September 2. (mnf/gil)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Aliansi Perempuan Gelar Aksi Damai di Depan Gedung DPR".]
