Jakarta – Around 500 workers, children and housewives protested at the offices of the Coordinating Minister for People’s Welfare in Jakarta on Thursday May 29 against the recent fuel price hikes.

The protesters, who came from the National Liberation Front (FPN), started the action by gathering at the Grogol bus terminal in West Jakarta then moving off towards the Hotel Indonesia roundabout in Central Jakarta. They then marched back to the Welfare Ministers office and then on the State Palace on Jl. Medan Merdeka Utara in Central Jakarta.

In addition to opposing the fuel price hikes and the high price of basic commodities, they also called for cuts to government officials’ wages and the nationalisation of the oil and gas industry under the control of the people.

After demonstrating at the Vice Presidential Palace on Jl. Medan Merdeka Selatan they then protested in front of the State Palace. Security for the Palace had been tightened by a joint contingent of personnel from the Cental Jakarta district police and the Gambir sectoral police.

Later they were joined by some 500 demonstrators who had earlier protested at the University of Indonesia campus in Salemba. They also made similar demands as well as calling for public transport to be subsidised.

[Translated by James Balowski.]