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20,000 security personnel to guard anti-communist rally
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Members of the Islamic People's Forum (FUI) take part in a march from Istiqlal Mosque to the State Palace in Central Jakarta on June 3. They are among 10,000 people from various hard-line and civil society groups protesting what they claim to be the revival of the defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and communism in Indonesia. (thejakartapost.com/Anton Hermansyah)
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bout 20,000 security personnel will secure Jakarta on Friday when a Muslim anti-communist group plans to protest in front of the House of Representatives.
The forces are made up of members from the Jakarta Police, the National Police and the Indonesian military (TNI), Jakarta Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Argo Yuwono said on Thursday.
Argo said they expected about 15,000 people to take part in the rally, which has been granted permission by the National Police.
When asked if the police would redirect traffic around the House, Argo said it would depend on the situation.
“We might conduct an open-closed system or redirect the traffic,” he added.
The rally's participants would center their protest on the issue of what they claimed is a revival of communism, an issue which sparked a mob attack on an office of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) last week.
Members of conservative Muslim groups, who previously rallied against former Jakarta governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama in a blasphemy case last year, are expected to join the protest.
Friday’s rally will also push the issue of the Regulation in Lieu of Law (Perppu) on mass organization, which was used by the government to ban Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI), an Islamist organization that sought to establish a global Islamic caliphate. (rdi)
