Jakarta – A group of Indonesian students Wednesday held their first street rally since President Abdurrahman Wahid took office to reaffirm their committment to act as a watchdog on the government.

The students, who have used mass street protests to try to push the military out of politics since before the fall of former strongman Suharto last year, called on Wahid to rid the new cabinet of its five military members.

Some 30 students of the Indonesian Students' Network, later joined by 15 colleagues from the University of Indonesia, staged the rally at a busy roundabout in central Jakarta, a favorite location for mass protests in the days leading up to Wahid's election on October 20.

Ari Wibowo, the secretary general of the student body of the University of Indonesia said that students would give the new government 100 days grace to see if the new ministers, including the five military men, could perform well.

"There are still five military personnel sitting in a five civilian ministerial positions. If it is still possible, this cabinet should be reshuffled, or if not, we still have the tolerance to wait for their future actions, by giving them 100 days," Wibowo said.

He said that several issues such as the upholding of the rule of law, including in the graft case against former president Suharto, remained of importance to the students.

Another student leader, Tubagus Ganden from the Bogor Institute of Agriculture, said the students wanted to remind the new government not to forget key reform demands.

These include the scrapping of the military's political role, clean government, prosecution of all those involved in corruption and human rights abuses, including military figures, and respect for the law.