T

he Jakarta Police have named five suspects after the skirmish between conventional taxi drivers and ojek (motorcycle taxi) drivers working for application-based transportation services during Tuesday'€™s demonstration to demand the government ban ride-hailing apps.

Rallies were conducted simultaneously in several parts of the capital by drivers of conventional taxis who said their income had dwindled since app-based transportation began operating in Jakarta.

The police said around 12,000 taxi drivers participated in the rallies, which turned violent after protesters stopped taxis that were continuing to operate, smashing their windows and forcing the drivers to join the rallies. Some participants were also seen beating up ojek drivers from app-based services.

Around 6,000 security personnel were deployed to secure the rallies.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Mohammad Iqbal said on Wednesday that the five suspects were drivers of various modes of transportation, and had been charged with allegedly committing various offenses.

One of the five men is a taxi driver identified as FY, 31, who is suspected of encouraging fellow taxi drivers across Greater Jakarta to bring weapons to the rallies to use against drivers from ride-hailing apps.

'€œThe suspect provoked his fellow taxi drivers through his Facebook account,'€ Iqbal said.

On Tuesday, a screenshot of a Facebook post from the account of a person called Fery Yanto went viral along with several pictures of the man and two weapons. He has a Blue Bird logo on his account.

'€œThese [the provocative posts] were of course dangerous,'€ said Jakarta Police special crimes director Sr. Comr. Mujiono. '€œWe, therefore, decided to form a special team and we arrested the man at 1:30 a.m.'€

Police said in a statement that FY would be charged with multiple offenses under Article 28 of the Internet Transaction Law on posting provocative comments and Article 160 of the Criminal Code. Both articles bear a maximum penalty of six years'€™ imprisonment.

Meanwhile, according to a police report received by The Jakarta Post, three of the suspects are drivers of three-wheeled bajaj (auto rickshaws) who reportedly disrupted public order and were charged under Article 63 of the Road Law, which bears a maximum sentence of 18 months'€™ imprisonment.

The remaining suspect is an app-based ojek driver, whom the police charged with violating Article 156 of the Criminal Code on showing hostility to others, with a maximum penalty of four years behind bars.

The police did not elaborate further on the alleged offenses of each suspect. But Jakarta Police general crimes chief Krishna Murti said they all had '€œmade provocations and attacked [vehicles]'€ at the rallies.

The police also detained 79 drivers from GrabBike and Go-Jek to undergo questioning. They were later released but Krishna said questioning would continue.

'€œThey were released because their alleged offenses were just misdemeanors,'€ he said.

Meanwhile, following Tuesday'€™s rallies, hundreds of taxi drivers in Denpasar, Bali, staged a similar demonstration on Wednesday.

They demanded the government ban both Grab and Uber, saying the app-based services had created unfair business competition.

Dressed in Balinese attire with udeng head scarves, they marched around 1 kilometer from Puputan Margarana Field in Renon to the provincial transportation agency.

'€œThey are illegal. They don'€™t have permits. We pay our tax, but they don'€™t. This is unfair,'€ said Ketut Wirta, chairman of Bali'€™s Taxi Drivers Association.

Earlier in February, Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika issued a ban on Grab and Uber, but it was not effective.