Jakarta – A planned urine bottle throwing action called by the group Student Political Block (BPP) has been cancelled. Their representatives however, still held a symbolic action by pouring urine over the Communication and Information Ministry's (Kominfo) office address marker.
Earlier, the BPP through its Facebook and Instagram accounts had called on netizens to band together and hold a urine bottle throwing action at the Kominfo offices over the ministry's Electronic System Operators (PSE) policy.
According to a release they uploaded on their Instagram account on Monday August 1, the group cancelled the bottle throwing action but said they would still go to the Kominfo office.
"We from the Student Political Block have decided not to hold the action with the call 'Gather to throw bottles of urine at the Communication and Information Ministry of the Republic of Indonesia (Kemkominfo RI)' which was planned to be held on Monday, August 1, 2022", read the release.
"Student Political Block representatives will still take responsibility for the situation at the location by still coming to the location", it continued.
According to CNN Indonesia's observations on Monday at 1.47 pm, scores of police officers were already on alert in front of the Kominfo offices. It was only at around 2.50 pm that several BPP representatives appeared at the office.
BPP spokesperson Ahmad then read out a statement of protest and explained the reasons for the action being held, namely respecting the advocacy process currently being carried out.
"The Student Political Block respects the advocacy process currently be carried out by the Kominfo Regulation 5/2020 Advocacy Coalition", Ahmad told journalists in front of the Kominfo office on Monday.
After reading out the statement, Ahmad symbolically poured urine over the Kominfo address marker in front of the office.
Although today they are only holding a symbolic action, Ahmad invited the public to express their anger and to speak out against Kominfo.
"There won't be [any urine bottles thrown], so today it's limited to this, but we invite citizens to express their anger, to speak out, don't put up with it, get out there", he said.
As has been reported, Kominfo blocked seven websites and apps which had failed to register as PSE by the deadline, namely Paypal, Steam, Dota, CS Go, Yahoo, Origin.com and epicGames. Specifically in the case of Paypal, the ministry gave them until Friday August 5.
The blocking was criticised by the public because many of these platforms are directly related to people's daily work and economic livelihoods. (lom/arh)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Batal 'Lempar Botol Pipis', Blok Politik Pelajar Gelar Aksi Simbolik".]
