Gunawan Mashar, Makassar – Students from two different groups in the South Sulawesi provincial capital of Makassar held demonstrations, one group was calling for corruption cases in the South Sulawesi provincial parliament to be investigated and the other was rejecting the draft law on the TNI (armed forces).

The scores of students who were demanding that corruption in the parliament be investigated were from the Student Executive Council (BEM) and held the action at the Reformasi toll road intersection in Makassar on Thursday August 19. They also went to the offices of the South Sulawesi Attorney General on Jalan Urip Sumohardjo and the district police on Jalan Perintis Kemerdekaan.

According to students, the case of embezzlement of funds by the South Sulawesi provincial parliament of the 2003 local government budget is as large as 18.23 billion rupiah and has already been submitted to the South Sulawesi police. The students complained however because the legislative members involved have yet to be questioned because permission has not yet been obtained from the department of home affairs. For this reason they believe that the failure for permission to be issued by the department to investigate the legislative members involved is an effort to block law enforcement.

Meanwhile the students who were opposing the draft law on the TNI held their action in front of the South Sulawesi parliament on Thursday. They came from a number of groups including the National Student League for Democracy (LMND), the People’s Democratic Party (PRD) and a number of BEM activists in Makassar.

The students condemned the draft law which they believe with strengthen militarism. “Militarism is a threat to democracy and the welfare of the people”, said one of the students during a speech. (asy)

[Abridged translation by James Balowski.]