Arie Puji Waluyo, Jakarta – The wave of demonstrations in front of the House of Representatives (DPR) building in Central Jakarta thundered again on Friday June 19.
Hundreds of students from the Trisakti University and Esa Unggul University joined together with other student organisations to articulate their protests against a number of Indonesian government policies.
Arriving in their proud blue alma mater jackets, the crowd had earlier marched from the Trisakti campus to the parliament complex. During the action, the student coalition brought five crucial demands aimed directly at the central government.
Criticism of regime policies, MBG program
From atop of the command vehicle, a student speaker from Trisakti University ignited the enthusiasm of the crowd by highlighting the loss of independence of state officials. They believe that the running of the wheels of government has had minimal positive impact on the wider community.
"Independent officials are the officials we have been hoping for all this time, comrades! But today, we are being performed to by the regime's actions which have no benefits", shouted the Trisakti student speaker loudly.
Sharp criticisms were then directed at the priority program of the administration of President Prabowo Subianto and Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka, namely the Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) program. The students believe that the program is a burden on the state budget (APBN) and was decided without adequate space for discussion.
"Today we are being performed to by the state's ambitions. The APBN was disbursed without any discussion with the public! The MBG [program] is now clearly the rotten face of the President's main programs, right, comrades?", asked the speaker, who was immediately answered with "That's right!", shouted simultaneously by thousands of demonstrators at the location.
Rejecting return of military's dual function
Apart from highlighting the state budget, the issue of civil supremacy and the threat of the return of the duel function of the military (dwi-fungsi) was other main agenda voiced at the gates of the DPR.
Students are urging the government to address this because they believe that there are indications of increasingly massive restrictions on the civil movement by state security forces.
The speaker explicitly warned that the involvement of the authorities had entered too far into the civilian realm. "Today, the military is alongside and intersecting with our work!", shouted the speaker breaking the atmosphere.
As a form of rejection of militarism, the protesters urged the government to stop its excessive security approach and respect the people's rights to freedom of expression.
"Return the military to the barracks! Stop establishing [new military] battalions! Stop the repressiveness of the authorities and free political prisoners!", they concluded in closing the speech. (Ari)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Mahasiswa Trisakti dan Esa Unggul Geruduk DPR, Soroti Tajam Program MBG dan Tolak Militerisme".]
