Reuters: Thousands of people rallied in Indonesia’s biggest cities on Tuesday, seeking to pile pressure on the government to reverse its first subsidized fuel price hike in eight years amid soaring inflation.
Under pressure to control a ballooning energy subsidy budget, President Joko Widodo on Saturday said he had little choice but to hike subsidized fuel prices by about 30%, an unpopular move in the country of 270 million people. Oil prices are about 32% higher than a year ago.
By midday on Tuesday, protests were underway in and around the capital Jakarta and in the cities of Surabaya, Makassar, Kendari, Aceh, and Yogyakarta, among a series of demonstrations led by students and labour unions that police say could draw tens of thousands of people this week.
Thousands of police were deployed across Jakarta, many guarding gas stations, fearing those could become targets of mounting anger over a price hike that unions say will hurt workers and the urban poor the most.
“Workers are really, really suffering right now,” said Abdul Aris, a union official.
“The price shouldn’t have been raised,” he said, vowing to keep fighting until the government gives way.Tuesday’s protests started peacefully, with no early reports of violence or arrests.