Indonesia's president cancels China trip as protests continue

JAKARTA: Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto on Saturday cancelled a planned trip to China as days of protests spread further outside the capital Jakarta, with several regional parliament buildings set ablaze.

Prabowo had been due to attend a “Victory Day” parade in China on September 3 to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two following Japan’s formal surrender.

The protests, the first major test for Prabowo’s nearly year-old government, began in Jakarta this week over lawmakers’ pay and worsened after a police vehicle hit and killed a motorcycle rider.

“The president wants to continue monitoring (the situation in Indonesia) directly…and seek the best solutions,” presidential spokesperson Prasetyo Hadi said in a video statement on Saturday.

“Therefore, the president apologises to the Chinese government that he could not attend the invitation.”
Another consideration in cancelling the trip was a United Nations General Assembly session in September,Prasetyo said.

In the light of the protest, short-video app TikTok, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, said on Saturday it had suspended its live feature in Indonesia for a few days.

Jakarta had this week summoned representatives of social media platforms, including as Meta Platforms Inc (META.O), opens new tab and TikTok, and told them to boost content moderation because disinformation had spread online.

The government says that such disinformation has spurred protests against it.

Earlier on Saturday, protesters caused fires at regional parliament buildings in three provinces – West Nusa Tenggara, Pekalongan city in Central Java and Cirebon city in West Java, local media reported.

Local media Detik.com said protesters had looted parliamentary office equipment in Cirebon and police fired teargas to disperse protesters in Pekalongan and West Nusa Tenggara.

Three people were killed on Friday in an arson attack on a parliament building in Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi province, Indonesia’s disaster management agency said.

State news agency Antara said the victims had been trapped in the burning building, and the disaster management agency said two people were injured after jumping out of the building to escape the fire.

Local media outlet metrotvnews.com reported one further death from a fire at the Makassar parliamentary building. This could not be independently confirmed.

Protests also occurred on the holiday island of Bali, where teargas was used against protesters.

Local media also reported that a crowd had looted the Jakarta home of Ahmad Sahroni, a lawmaker from the political party NasDem, and taken items including household furniture.

Sahroni has faced accusations of responding insensitively to people calling for parliament to be dissolved amid anger over lawmakers’ allowances. Sahroni has labelled such critics “the stupidest people in the world”.

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