JAKARTA: Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has condemned recent protests over economic conditions and inequality, stating that some actions during nationwide rallies amount to treason and terrorism.
Southeast Asia’s largest economy has experienced significant protests across major cities including the capital following footage of a motorcycle taxi driver being run over by a police tactical vehicle at an earlier demonstration against parliamentary perks.
“The rights to peaceful assembly should be respected and protected,“ Prabowo stated during a speech in Jakarta on Sunday.
He emphasised that protests must remain peaceful and warned that the state would intervene if public facilities were destroyed or private homes looted.
The president’s comments follow the looting of Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati’s residence, which required soldiers to guard the property according to witness accounts.
Public anger has extended to lawmakers with several reporting their houses being ransacked in recent days.
Protesters have multiple grievances but recent rallies have focused on revelations that parliament members receive housing allowances nearly ten times higher than Jakarta’s minimum wage.
Tragedy struck in the eastern city of Makassar where at least three people died after protesters started a fire at a council building.
Two workers perished at the scene while a civil servant later died in hospital from injuries sustained.
Crowds were observed cheering and clapping as flames consumed the building with minimal security presence.
The unrest has spread to other major urban centres including Yogyakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Surabaya in Java, and Medan in North Sumatra province.
A local council building was burned on Lombok island while a police headquarters in Surabaya was set ablaze on Saturday.
These protests represent the largest and most violent challenge to Prabowo’s presidency, testing the former general less than a year into his administration.
He has promised an investigation into the death of motorcycle driver Affan Kurniawan and assistance for his family, with seven officers from the tactical vehicle detained for questioning.
The escalating crisis has forced Prabowo to cancel his planned attendance at a military parade in China commemorating World War Two’s end to monitor the domestic situation.
Despite pledging rapid state-driven growth, the president already faced protests against widespread government budget cuts before the current unrest.
Social media platform TikTok responded to the protests by temporarily suspending its live feature in Indonesia for several days, affecting over 100 million users. – AFP