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President plays up threat of rallies
Violent protest: Riot policemen are hit by a petrol bomb thrown by students during a protest against the visit of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Makassar, South Sulawesi, on Tuesday
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span class="inline inline-center">Violent protest: Riot policemen are hit by a petrol bomb thrown by students during a protest against the visit of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Makassar, South Sulawesi, on Tuesday. Hundreds of students protested against the President’s performance during his six years of leadership. Reuters/Yusuf Ahmad
Hailed as a champion of democracy by the international community, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is now worried that heightened political tensions could threaten his administration.
President was speaking Tuesday in Makassar, South Sulawesi, where a series of violent rallies protested his administration’s performance.
In one rally, at least five police officers and a journalist were injured when hundreds of students from Makassar State University (UNM) clashed with police just outside of the university’s campus.
The student protest, which condemned Yudhoyono’s recent performance, turned violent as officers tried to break up the rally as they sought to guard a national meeting of Indonesian governors, which the President was attending, held just 50 meters away.
Police officers fired tear gas into the crowd, and students threw Molotov cocktails at the police.
The police apprehended three students and were seen to beat them. Several soldiers brandishing automatic weapons were also seen attempted to bring order to the chaotic situation.
Yudhoyono said at the governors’ meeting that protests and criticisms were ordinary in a democracy.
“It is the [people’s] right to take such action; we have to respect it. Unless [the action] is violent, involves vandalism or an attempt to overthrow the rightful government,” he said.
Yudhoyono said there were heightened political tensions in Jakarta, and that there would be efforts to overthrow his administration on Wednesday (today) on the anniversary of its first day in office.
Yudhoyono and his running mate Boediono won the support of 60 percent of more than 120 million voters in last year’s presidential election.
Yudhoyono has earned praises from the international community for the steady growth of Indonesia’s economy in spite of the global recession.
Under his leadership, “the country’s transition from authoritarianism has proven that as a democracy, Indonesia can be culturally vibrant and economically prosperous,” wrote Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, when Time magazine named Yudhoyono as among the most influential leaders of 2009.
Yudhoyono’s statements Tuesday were not his first relating to alleged planned efforts by groups to attempt to overthrow his administration. He has also issued such statements ahead of other major anniversaries in the country, including anticorruption day and labor day this year.
Despite his claims of rising political tensions in the capital on Tuesday, no rallies took place in Jakarta.
As for Wednesday, the Jakarta Police have said 16 groups, or about 2,000 people, have announced they will rally in protest of the government, adding that thousands of officers would be deployed to keep the peace.
A source close to the Presidential Palace said Yudhoyono had changed his schedule for Wednesday several times with so many news on huge rallies.
The source said the President had initially planned to “skip” the palace and instead attend to his agenda at his residence in Cikeas, south of Jakarta.
“The President is to have a radio interview in the morning and attend the Golkar [party] anniversary,” the source said, quoting the latest schedule updated at 9 p.m. Tuesday.
