Jakarta – A student protest against the postponement of the legislative and presidential elections in 2024 and President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo serving a third term in office, which was held at the intersection of Jalan Sultan Alauddin and AP Pettarani in the South Sulawesi regional capital of Makassar, has ended in chaos.
The chaos was triggered after the students holding the action closed off several lengths of road resulting in severe traffic congestion in the lead up to breaking the fast. As a result, police tried to break up the protest using persuasive methods but the students did not respond and the rally descended into chaos.
"We reject the election postponement and an additional term for the president and demand an evaluation of the supervisory function of the DPR [House of Representatives]", said field coordinator Sukirman S Doturu on Thursday April 7.
In addition to this, the students also responded to the recent rise in fuel prices and the scarcity of cooking oil which has created anxiety among the ordinary people.
"Immediately solve cases of humanitarian violence. End the mounting foreign debt. So we call for the DPR speaker to be removed from her position", asserted Doturu.
The students held demonstrations at six different locations starting from in front of the Muhammadiyah University on Jalan Sultan Alauddin to Jalan AP Pettarani.
Makassar metropolitan district police operational division chief Assistant Superintendent Darminto said that the chaos was triggered when the students closed several lengths of road.
"We had already given them the opportunity to hold the demonstration from 4 pm, but they set fire to tyres and even closed two lengths of road. And there was a student who smashed a car mirror so we took action against them", said Darminto at the location.
According to Darminto, the police broke up the rally in accordance with procedures and in a persuasive manner. "There was no violence, just pushing and shoving between the officers and students", he said. (DAL)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Aksi Mahasiswa Tolak Jokowi 3 Periode di Makassar Ricuh".]
