Protests in Indonesia over rising living costs and inequality intensified overnight, prompting President Prabowo Subianto to cancel a planned trip to China as demonstrators reportedly targeted the homes of the finance minister and several lawmakers.
Rioters entered Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati’s residence near Jakarta early yesterday, but were repelled by armed forces personnel, Kompas reported.
Items were taken from the homes of lawmaker Ahmad Sahroni and two others, according to Detik.com.
The reports of looting could not be independently verified, and the finance ministry has not responded to requests for comment, according to Bloomberg.
The protests were sparked by outrage over lawmakers’ housing allowances – nearly 10 times the monthly minimum wage – and fuelled by tax hikes, mass lay-offs and inflation that have disproportionately hit lower-income Indonesians.
The death of a food delivery rider, Affan Kurniawan, who was run over by a police vehicle during a rally, further inflamed tensions.
Protests in major cities have also turned deadly, with at least three people killed in Makassar and dozens of buildings and public facilities destroyed.
Due to the escalating violence, social media platform TikTok announced on Saturday that it has temporarily suspended its live feature in Indonesia for “a few days”.
“We have voluntarily introduced additional safeguards to keep TikTok a safe and civil space,” a TikTok spokesperson told AFP.
“Out of an abundance of caution, TikTok LIVE is temporarily suspended for a few days in Indonesia.”
The video-sharing app said it would continue to monitor the situation closely.
Indonesia has one of the world’s biggest audiences on TikTok, with more than 100 million users.
In some videos of the protests posted on the service on Saturday, users complained they could not use the live feature. — Agencies
