Hundreds of Indonesian students and civil-society groups protested in Jakarta and other cities on October 28 over the country's worst forest fires and haze in 11 years, demanding the blazes be declared a national disaster.
Hundreds of Indonesian students and civil-society groups protested on October 28 in Jakarta and other cities against President Prabowo Subianto's handling of forest fires, in what Reuters describes as the country's worst fires and haze in 11 years. Protesters crowded a Jakarta landmark roundabout, some wearing gas masks, and demanded the blazes be designated a national disaster, carrying signs including one reading, if we burn, you burn with us.
The fires, worsened by El Nino leaving peatland vulnerable, have increased respiratory illness and pushed haze into Malaysia and Singapore, according to the Reuters account. Anggi Aurien, 28, was quoted wearing a gas mask for three hours while protesting fires that killed wildlife. Other University of Indonesia students were blocked by dozens of police and military personnel, leading to some scuffles, and protesters chanted revolution. Students also rallied in Makassar and Bandung, and demands included halting spending on populist programmes such as the free-meals scheme.
Security had been stepped up before the protests, with hundreds of personnel, heavy police and military presence and armoured vehicles in central Jakarta on Wednesday morning, under the hashtag IndonesiaAware. Government communications chief Syahganda Nainggolan urged calm, said the government welcomed protests and was open to input, and noted that Indonesia has prosecuted companies allegedly linked to fires and tried weather modification to induce rain.
The deployment, demands, locations and government response are confirmed in the Reuters reporting. What is not confirmed in that reporting is a turnout figure beyond hundreds, or any casualty or arrest figures for October 28, and this story does not add them. Ezra Al Barra, a University of Padjadjaran student, was quoted calling the fires a collective anger, which is reported as his view, not as a verified account of the fires' cause.
The stakes are whether the government treats the fires as a national disaster, which would unlock a different scale of response, or continues with prosecutions and rain-making efforts that protesters say have not stopped the haze. With smoke already crossing borders, the domestic protest is also a regional issue for Malaysia and Singapore, whose air quality depends in part on fires burning in Indonesia.