JAKARTA: Thousands of Indonesians protested in Jakarta and other cities on Wednesday (Oct 28) against economic hardship, graft and the government's handling of devastating wildfires emitting a toxic haze that has made thousands ill.
Many demonstrators held up the three-finger salute of rebellion from dystopian franchise "The Hunger Games" and waved posters with angry messages such as: "Hungry? Eat the Rich!" and "If we burn, you burn with us."
Many placards expressed anger towards President Prabowo Subianto, whose popularity two years into his term has reached record lows amid claims of widespread government corruption and growing authoritarianism.
"Hey Wok! Nobody paid us. We all hate you for free," stated one sign, using a pejorative for the president. Another said: "No Clean Air Under Dirty Government."
Protester Sekar, 37, said her "heart is shattered" by the plight of compatriots battling months of wildfires and haze while also contending with the effects of a weakening currency and higher prices.
"I came here from home with the intention of protecting the students" who called the demonstration, Sekar told AFP.
"I will be looking for any police officers who lay hands on them and take them away, and I will be the first to step forward to defend them."
Police said about 14,000 officers, as well as soldiers, had been deployed to keep a lid on the demonstrations in Jakarta.
AFP saw pushing and shoving between front-row protesters and officers trying to keep the surging crowd away from Jakarta's central Bundaran HI public square, which is surrounded by businesses and embassies.
Police fired several canisters of tear gas, while some in the crowd hurled half-empty plastic water bottles at law enforcers and burnt trash on the street.
Many dispersed as rain fell about six hours after the protest started.
The protest organising committee, which calls itself SADAR, meaning "aware" in Bahasa Indonesia, said the action was meant to mark a "revolution that is being proclaimed".
The group is demanding that the government declare a national emergency to unlock more resources to fight wildfires across the vast archipelago.
Deforestation monitor Nusantara Atlas says the blazes have destroyed more than 1.9 million hectares in the nine months to September.
"Hundreds and thousands of people are suffering" from the fires, said protester Annette Mau, 47, of the Indonesian Mothers' Alliance, an NGO.
"Tens of thousands of babies are suffering from health problems. They cannot breathe" because of the toxic haze from the fires that has spread far across the region.
The government said in a statement on Wednesday it "understands the concerns raised by students regarding environmental issues, the economy, education, legal reform and governance, as well as the protection of human rights and democracy".
It said the government was pursuing those five areas as "priorities".
Spokesman Kurnia Ramadhana said more than 72,000 people had been deployed in firefighting operations, as well as over 2,100 doctors and health workers, and 5.3 million masks had been distributed.
The haze from the fires has also complicated Indonesia's relations with its neighbours.
Singapore's Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan met Prabowo in Jakarta on Wednesday, a day after saying the haze was "not a natural phenomenon" and the fires "were caused by human action".
Protester Annette accused the government of "trying to cover" up the problem.
"They're trying to make excuses," she said.
"We are being oppressed by the tyrannical regime."
A statement sent to AFP by protest organisers said that, under Prabowo, "the sovereignty of the ruling class takes precedence over the sovereignty of the people".
They pointed to "mismanagement of the debt-burdened economy; environmental and energy exploitation that has triggered an ecological crisis; and the erosion of the rule of law and democracy".
There were also protests in the cities of Bandung outside Jakarta, Malang and Yogyakarta elsewhere on Java island, and Makassar in the south of Sulawesi island. - AFP
