Surabaya – Around 1,000 students held a "Dark Indonesia" (Indonesia Gelap) action in front of the East Java (Jatim) Regional House of Representatives (DPRD) offices in the provincial capital of Surabaya on Monday February 17. They were rejecting the government's budget efficiency policy.
The demonstrators appeared to be carrying flags from each campus, including from the Airlangga University (Unair), the Surabaya State University (Unesa), the Sunan Ampel State Islamic University (UINSA) and the National Development University (UPN).
"It's clear why we are here, to reject the [budget] efficiency [cuts] to education that is now being put forward by the government", said one of the speakers from the command vehicle on Monday.
They explicitly rejected the budget efficiency policy by President Prabowo Subianto who is said to be cutting education funds. They also rejected the free nutritional meals (MBG) program which they consider insignificant.
"How can education as a main foundation instead be weakened, education workers should also be prosperous. We don't need free lunches if education is increasingly fearful", said the speaker.
In the middle of the action, the protesters also set fire to a coffin that had the words #DARKINDONESIA (#INDONESIAGELAP) written on it. As a result the fire grew larger.
In addition, the students also burned tires and several banners. Black smoke soared high into the air. The police then brought out a fire extinguisher and tried to put out the fire.
"This is an expression of our disappointment, we have given speeches but no one has met us. Do were need to go in, to confront them ourselves", they said.
"Come on friends, let's go see the DPRD speaker who's inside. They ignore us who have already been getting heated since before", they said.
Earlier the students had asked the speaker of the East Java DPRD and their staff to meet the protesters saying that they would not leave the location until then. But after waiting for more than three hours, the request was not granted.
The students, who had already succeeded in breaking down the razor wire fence, began preparing to force their way into the DPRD building. Meanwhile in front of them were hundreds of police officers including member of the paramilitary Mobile Police (Brimob) with riot shields, helmets and batons ready to dispel them.
"It's just a fence, in fact the bapak [Sir Lawmakers] have gave us a partition [to prevent] us meeting the representatives inside, it was only natural that we trampled on the wire", said action field coordinator Thaariq Akbar or Atta from the command vehicle.
Atta said they wanted the DPRD leaders to meet them, listen to their aspirations and convey them to the central government.
"We just want the centre to listen, we ask that our aspirations be heard by the speaker of the Indonesian DPR [House of Representatives] or the president. Where the Jatim DPRD speaker, until now the DPRD speaker is still hiding", he said.
When students began to push forward into the DPRD, the water canon vehicle belonging to the Surabaya Metropolitan District Police (Polrestabes) Tactical Police Unit (Sabhara) Corps, then fired the water cannon at the protesters. Chaos was inevitable. (frd/dal)
[Slightly abridged translation by James Balowski based on two articles by CNN Indonesia on February 17. The original title of the lead article was "Demo 'Indonesia Gelap' di Surabaya, Mahasiswa Bakar Keranda dan Ban".]
