Deadly Indonesia protests force U-turn on lawmakers' perks

JAKARTA: Political parties in Indonesia have agreed to cut lawmakers’ benefits, President Prabowo Subianto said on Sunday, in a bid to calm anti-government protests that have killed at least five people in the country’s worst violence in decades.

Protests began on Monday over what demonstrators called excessive pay and housing allowances for parliamentarians of Indonesia, escalating into riots on Friday after a motorcycle rideshare driver was killed during police action at a protest site.

Homes of political party members and state buildings were ransacked or set ablaze, shaking investor confidence in the Southeast Asian economy and triggering a steep selloff on its stocks and currency markets on Friday.

Looters broke into a house owned by Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati outside the capital Jakarta overnight, state news agency Antara reported on Sunday.

She was not in the house at the time and it was not clear if she uses the property often.

More protests are planned for Monday, and student groups did not call them off after Prabowo’s announcement.

Prabowo, speaking at a press conference at the Presidential Palace and flanked by the leaders of various political parties, said he had ordered the military and police to take stern action against rioters and looters. He said some of the unrest bore the signs of terrorism and treason.

“Leaders in parliament have conveyed that they will revoke a number of parliament policies, including the size of allowances for members of parliament and a moratorium on overseas work trips,” Prabowo said.

“To the police and the military, I have ordered them to take action as firm as possible against the destruction of public facilities, looting at homes of individuals and economic centres, according to the laws,” he added.

The protests represent the most significant challenge yet to Prabowo’s government, which has faced little political opposition since taking office nearly a year ago.

Prabowo, who cancelled a high-profile trip to China due to the unrest, also met on Sunday with key members of his cabinet at the Presidential Palace to discuss the situation.

Many ministers and political leaders arriving at the palace used civilian number plates instead of special ones given to officials, a witness said, in an apparent security measure as unrest simmered in some places.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Friday hosted the families of soldiers who died fighting for Russia in this war with Ukraine.

The military was deployed to guard the palace on top of the usual secret service detail. Many key ministers’ homes and government installations were also being guarded by the military on Sunday.

It remains unclear who is behind the rioting and looting that followed the protests, which were initially organised by student associations.

Muzammil Ihsan, head of the All Indonesian Students’ Executives Body, the country’s largest student umbrella group, told Reuters cutting lawmakers’ perks was “not enough” and said further demonstrations were being “considered”.

“The government must resolve deep-rooted problems. The anger on the streets is not without cause,” Ihsan said.
Tegar Afriansyah, the chairman of a smaller student group, Indonesian Student League for Democracy, which has been protesting since Monday, said the presidential announcement does not address the root of the problem, which is “political oligarchy and an unequal economic structure”.

He termed Prabowo’s instructions to police and military as “clearly repressive and intimidating”.
Global rights watchdog Amnesty International’s Indonesia chapter in a statement termed Prabowo’s use of terms such as treason and terrorism as “excessive”.

TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, said it had suspended its live feature in Indonesia for a few days.

The death toll rose to five on Sunday, according to the local disaster management agency in Makassar, South Sulawesi province.

It said an online motorcycle taxi driver was beaten to death by a mob accusing him of being an intelligence agent.

Three others were killed in an arson attack on the local parliament building on Friday.