JAKARTA (Reuters) – Hundreds of students and activists rallied in some major cities for more “Dark Indonesia” protests on Friday, opposing President Prabowo Subianto’s policies including $19 billion of spending cuts that they say undermine their support systems.
Dressed in black as the sky darkened and rain started falling, the crowd gathered in streets near the presidential palace in the capital Jakarta, carrying posters that read “the government consists of dumb people” and invoking Prabowo’s beloved “first cat”, saying if it could speak it would join the protests.
Friday’s protest follows several similar demonstrations in some major cities this week. The name comes from the unclear and bleak nature of the policies, Herianto, a student leader joining one rally, said.
Among the policies the people rally against include Prabowo’s flagship programme of giving free meals to students.
To help fund that, he instructed his government to cut spending by $19 billion, which reduced travel, consultants, training, and stationery.
Students have said the cuts have negatively impacted teacher welfare and could raise tuition fees, which Prabowo’s office has denied.
In Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city, hundreds of people staged a demonstration, local media CNN Indonesia reported, with a street theatrical performance where a protester rolled around on the floor to signify poverty.
Students were also protesting against expanded military roles in civilian work and a lack of subsidised cooking gas.
“These policies delegitimise us as Indonesians,” said university student Ridho Anwari Arifin at the Friday protest.
The protests occurred four months after Prabowo became the country’s eighth president, which he won in a landslide election.
(Reporting by Yuddy Cahya Budiman, Ananda Teresia, and Stanley Widianto; Editing by John Mair and Kim Coghill)
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