Jakarta – Students from the Populist All Indonesia Student Executive Council (BEM SI Kerakyatan) brought a pocong (a shrouded corpse or ghost) to an action protesting revisions to the Indonesian Military Law (RUU TNI) and the National Police Law (RUU Polri) near the Presidential Palace in Jakarta.
A student wearing a shroud like a pocong lay down in front of a police barricade. The students also made four graves complete with gravestones reading "Reformasi son of Jokowi", "Reformasi sone of Dwi-Fungsi ABRI", "Reformasi son of a Deaf Legislator" and "Reformasi son of Polri's Repressiveness".
BEM SI Kerakyatan National Coordinator Satria Naufal said that the action symbolised the death of the reformasi era – the political reform process that began in 1998 – under the administration of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.
They highlighted the revisions to the TNI and National Police laws which suddenly began doing the rounds in the House of Representatives (DPR).
The students are concerned that the revision to the two laws will restore ABRI's (as the TNI was previously known) dwi-fungsi (dual socio-political function) that was abolished during reformasi.
"One of the products of the high jacking of legislation is the TNI and Polri draft laws, two legal products that are very problematic. Two out of many legal products that are problematic. Why? Because they have not been reviewed through public participation", said Naufal on the sidelines of the demonstration at the Horse Statue in Central Jakarta on Tuesday July 30.
At today's action, the students failed to hold a demonstration right in front of the Presidential Palace as they were stopped at the Horse Statue by a police blockade.
Naufal said that the students would return with larger numbers of protesters and pledged to continue demonstrating until the TNI and National Police bills are revoked.
"In the next week, in the next few days, we will hold a Reformasi Week. In August, we will hold simultaneous protests in 14 regions with more than 390 campuses simultaneously throughout Indonesia ahead of [the Independence Day celebrations on] August 17", said Naufal.
Earlier, the students were involved in a scuffle with police near the Horse Statue on Jalan Medan Merdeka Barat when they attempted to approach the Palace.
The BEM SI students had initially gathered near the Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI) at the National Monument (Monas) at around 3.10 pm. They then held a long-march towards the Presidential Palace on Jalan Medan Merdeka Utara. escorted by police on motorcycles.
Upon arriving at the Horse Statue area they found that the police had installed razor wire to prevent them from approaching the Palace, but this ended up creating traffic congestion in the direction of the Palace.
When the barricade was opened, the students attempted to force their way through which ended with the students and police pushing and shoving each other when the police tried to push the students back to prevent them reaching the Palace.
Traffic in the direction of the Palace is still congested and as of writing this report, the student action opposing the TNI and Polri bills is continuing. (dhf/fra)
[Abridged translation by James Balowski based on two articles by CNN Indonesia on June 30. The original title of the lead article was "Protes RUU TNI dan Polri, Mahasiswa Bawa Pocong dan Nisan ke Istana".]
