‘Eat the rich’: Indonesians protest against graft, wildfires

Police said about 14,000 officers, along with soldiers, had been deployed to maintain order during the demonstrations in Jakarta.(AFP) — Thousands of Indonesians protested in Jakarta and other cities Wednesday against economic hardship, corruption and the government’s handling of devastating wildfires whose toxic haze has sickened thousands.Many demonstrators held up the three-finger salute of rebellion from the dystopian franchise “The Hunger Games” and waved posters with angry messages such as “Hungry? Eat the Rich!” and “If we burn, you burn with us.”Many placards expressed anger toward President Prabowo Subianto, whose popularity two years into his term has reached record lows amid claims of widespread government corruption and growing authoritarianism.“Hey Wok! Nobody paid us. We all hate you for free,” read one sign, using a pejorative for the president. Another said: “No Clean Air Under Dirty Government.”Protester Sekar, 37, said her “heart is shattered” by the plight of fellow Indonesians battling months of wildfires and haze while also contending with the effects of a weakening currency and higher prices.“I came here from home with the intention of protecting the students” who called the demonstration, Sekar told AFP.“I will be looking for any police officers who lay hands on them and take them away, and I will be the first to step forward to defend them.”Police said about 14,000 officers, along with soldiers, had been deployed to maintain order during the demonstrations in Jakarta.AFP saw pushing and shoving between protesters at the front of the crowd and officers trying to keep the surging crowd away from Jakarta’s central Bundaran HI public square, which is surrounded by businesses and embassies.Police fired several canisters of tear gas, while some in the crowd hurled half-empty plastic water bottles at officers and burned trash in the street.Many dispersed as rain fell about six hours after the protest started.‘They cannot breathe’The protest organizing committee, which calls itself SADAR, meaning “aware” in Indonesian, said the action was meant to mark a “revolution that is being proclaimed.”The group is demanding that the government declare a national emergency to unlock more resources to fight wildfires across the vast archipelago.Deforestation monitor Nusantara Atlas says the blazes destroyed more than 4.7 million acres in the first nine months of the year.“Hundreds and thousands of people are suffering” from the fires, said protester Annette Mau, 47, of the Indonesian Mothers’ Alliance, a nongovernmental organization.“Tens of thousands of babies are suffering from health problems. They cannot breathe” because of the toxic haze from the fires that has spread across the region.The government said in a statement Wednesday that it “understands the concerns raised by students regarding environmental issues, the economy, education, legal reform and governance, as well as the protection of human rights and democracy.”It said it was pursuing those five areas as “priorities.”Spokesman Kurnia Ramadhana said more than 72,000 people had been deployed for firefighting operations, along with more than 2,100 doctors and health workers, and 5.3 million masks had been distributed.The haze from the fires has also complicated Indonesia’s relations with its neighbors.Singaporean Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan met with Prabowo in Jakarta on Wednesday, a day after saying the haze was “not a natural phenomenon” and the fires “were caused by human action.”Mau accused the government of “trying to cover” up the problem.“They’re trying to make excuses,” she said.“We are being oppressed by the tyrannical regime.”A statement sent to AFP by protest organizers said that under Prabowo, “the sovereignty of the ruling class takes precedence over the sovereignty of the people.”They pointed to “mismanagement of the debt-burdened economy; environmental and energy exploitation that has triggered an ecological crisis; and the erosion of the rule of law and democracy.”There were also protests in Bandung, Malang and Yogyakarta on the island of Java, and in Makassar on the southern part of the island of Sulawesi.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads