Rachmadin Ismail, Jakarta – Hundreds of demonstrators from the Workers Challenge Alliance (ABM) held an protest action on May 21 opposing the candidates running for the July 8 presidential elections because none of the candidates are pro-people.

“We reject the political elite who are not pro-people or bourgeois and we are ready to bring them down as happened 11 years ago when [former President] Suharto was overthrown,” said Eka Widya, one of the participants at the action at the Proclamation Monument on Jl. Diponegoro in the Menteng area of Central Jakarta on Thursday.

The protesters plan to hold a convey and visit various locations in Jakarta to commemorate the overthrow of Suharto 11 years ago. They will use scores of motorcycles and an open pickup truck and give speeches along the way.

The convoy will set off from the Proclamation Monument than continue to the House of Representatives Building and the Trisakti University campus. The action will end later in the afternoon in front of the State Palace in Central Jakarta.

“We don’t trust the elite that are currently [in power] because they do not come from the working class,” said Widya.

Widya also added that the 2009 elections must be opposed because they will not bring any good to the ordinary people. The agenda being campaigned over the next five years is simply being used as a means to perpetuate power. “The 2009 elections are not the people’s elections,” shouted the protesters.

[Translated by James Balowski.]