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View all search resultsMilitary deployment against student protest draws flak
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Indonesian Military (TNI) personnel (center) stand guard behind police personnel to block the path of students protesting demanding a reduction in fuel prices and the dissolution of President Prabowo Subianto's free nutritious meal program, which they consider to be a hotbed of corruption, on June 12 in Jakarta. (AFP/Bay Ismoyo)
T
he deployment of Indonesian Military (TNI) personnel against a student protest denouncing wasteful state spending drew criticism from protesters and civil society groups, who said that crowd control falls outside the mandate of defense forces.
Students from universities across Greater Jakarta, led by University of Indonesia’s student union BEM UI, planned to stage a rally at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta on Friday. But police officers intercepted their buses en route and directed them to hold the rally at the Senayan Legislative Complex instead. The students then disembarked and marched several kilometers toward the traffic circle in the heart of the capital.
However, just 400 meters from the traffic circle, they were blocked by four layers of security cordon. The frontmost barricade consisted of lines of police officers, with military personnel positioned directly behind them in a second layer.
The presence of TNI personnel in green uniforms is a rare sight at protests and left students concerned.
“We feel intimidated when confronted by the police and the military. We only want to make our voices heard,” Anandaku Dimas Chattaristo, one of UI protesters, said in the rally on Friday.
He called on President Prabowo Subianto to “stop intimidating, repressing and obstructing” student protesters through police and military barricades.
Raka Andhika, another UI protester, said they were driven by a genuine desire to improve the lives of Indonesians, asking not to be treated “as if we were enemies or armed criminals”.
