Poki: Dad, this is my evaluation of your performance as a father...
Father: Were the results satisfactory?
Poki: Grim! Dark! Mom's authoritarian! My pocket money's been cut! The food isn't tasty! Snacks are hard to come by. I've even been ordered not to come back if I run away!
Poki: So who elected you to be my father anyway?
Father: Your Mom, you should complain to Mom.
Thousands of Indonesian students in major cities around the country have been taking to the streets in a series of "Dark Indonesia" (#IndonesiaGelap) actions to protest the administration of President Prabowo Subianto and Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka, which marked its first 100 days in office this week.
Widespread public dissatisfaction with the political and economic situation in the country has been fuelled by growing authoritarianism and militarism, Prabowo's massive and indiscriminate budget cuts and the 3kg LPG canister debacle. The government's tendency to belittle this discontent, such as by telling people wanting leave Indonesia to work abroad not to come back, has only added to people's sense of frustration.
The protests, which began on Monday February 17, were initially planned to conclude on Thursday in front of the Presidential Palace in Jakarta, but students continued to rally in some major cities until Friday with protests in Jakarta and Makassar descended into violence with demonstrators throwing firecrackers and Molotov cocktails at police, who in turn fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowds.
The week-long protests mark the first significant opposition to Prabowo and his government and have made him the first president in the reform era to be targeted by such large demonstrations so soon after taking office.
The students' main demands included the repeal of Prabowo's so called "budget efficiency policy" which mandates 306.7 trillion rupiah (US$18.7 billion) in cuts to government spending, including education, to fund his pet projects such as the free nutritious meals (MBG) program for school children and pregnant mothers, and the establishment of a new sovereign wealth fund called Danantara.
The students also called for a full evaluation of the MBG program which they say is wasteful and ineffective, an end to the military's growing involvement in civilian affairs, the downsizing of Prabowo's bloated cabinet and for the arrest and trial of his ally and predecessor former president Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.
They also received support from Indonesians studying overseas in Germany and Australia with students protesting the retreat of democracy, the return of militarism through the placement of military offices in civilian posts, the deployment of soldiers in the food estate program in Papua and the MBG program. They also protested police violence, budget waste from Prabowo's cabinet and environmental destruction. Rallies have also taken place in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) political researcher Nicky Fahrizal said that the prolonged protests indicate a "growing public distrust" of Prabowo's unwieldy cabinet, fuelled largely by an accumulation of poorly thought out policies and political blunders made by ministers.
Fahrizal warned that the protests could pose a danger to Prabowo's presidency as it could "delegitimise" his new administration, which prior to the Dark Indonesia rallies enjoyed an approval rating of more than 80 percent according to several pollsters.
"If left unaddressed, these waves of protests could widen to other segments of the population, including members of lower-income groups who supported Prabowo in the presidential election last year", said Fahrizal.
