Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has left for China to attend a Victory Day parade after initially cancelling due to days of massive protests against rising inequality, his presidential spokesperson Prasetyo Hadi said in a statement.
The Indonesian president will join more than 25 leaders – including North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and Russia’s Vladimir Putin – to attend Wednesday’s parade in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square to mark 8the 0th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in World War II.
list 1 of 3
Indonesian president frees hundreds of prisoners as part of unity plan
list 2 of 3
Indonesians raise anime pirate flag in protest as nation marks independence
list 3 of 3
Indonesia: The Voice of Freedom
end of list
Prabowo is expected to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for talks during his visit, his spokesperson added on Tuesday. He will fly back home on September 3.
Indonesia was rocked by widespread protests, which left at least six dead and over 20 missing according to rights groups.
The protests began in the capital Jakarta last week, against a range of cost-of-living issues and anger boiled over after the killing of a motorcycle taxi driver who was hit by a police vehicle during a demonstration in the capital.
Protesters have attacked the headquarters of the police mobile brigade and set fire to a five-storey building near the police compound in the Kwitang neighbourhood of central Jakarta.
Demonstrations have also taken place in other cities across the country, including Surabaya, Solo, Yogyakarta, Medan, Makassar, Manado, Bandung, and Manokwari in the easternmost Papua region.
Protestors also attacked the home of Indonesia’s finance minister, as well as other lawmakers’ homes.
On Friday, President Subianto promised to investigate the death of the gig motorcycle driver Affan Kurniawan, and expressed his “deepest condolences and sympathy” on behalf of the government.
Advertisement
“I have ordered the last night’s incident to be thoroughly and transparently investigated, and that the officers involved be held accountable,” he said in a statement.
To address the protestors’ economic concerns, the country’s government cut financial perks for lawmakers on Sunday.
“The parliament leadership conveyed that they would revoke several policies, including the amount of allowance for lawmakers, and a moratorium on overseas visits,” President Subianto said, without specifying which allowance he was referring to.
But speaking out against the protests over economic woes on Sunday, the president said some actions in rallies that have spread across the country in recent days amounted to treason and “terrorism”.
“The rights to peaceful assembly should be respected and protected. But we cannot deny that there are signs of actions outside the law, even against the law, even leaning towards treason and terrorism,” he said in a speech at the presidential palace in the capital Jakarta.
Indonesia will take strong action against “rioters and looters”, the country’s defence minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin told a news conference on Sunday, after the homes of several politicians were ransacked as anti-government protests spread across the country. The country’s armed forces were also deployed to the capital to tighten security.
While the protest rallies have become smaller in recent days after the lawmaker perks were revoked and the military was deployed on Monday in a show of force, Rights groups have said Prabowo’s olive branch from parliament did not go far enough.
“The president’s statement was insensitive to all the complaints and aspirations that the people were voicing during the demonstrations,” Amnesty International Indonesia executive director Usman Hamid said in a statement.
“The state should respond to demands from various groups of people with a series of comprehensive policy changes.”
British Caribbean News
