Jakarta – A protest meant to unseat the President drew only a few hundred demonstrators and caused minor traffic delays in downtown Jakarta on Monday.
Billed the "Second Malari" protest, after a student riot on Jan. 14, 1974, it lasted less than three hours. The rally's main event, speeches condemning President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in front of the State Palace, ran for less than half an hour.
On Sunday, protest organizer Hariman Siregar had said that the President and his ministers should resign because people were dissatisfied with their work.
On Monday Hariman, who took part in the original Malari protest, repeated his demand that Yudhoyono step down without waiting for a mass movement to unseat him.
Hariman said that Monday's rally was a "warm-up" for bigger things. "We'll see, but let's start this first," he told reporters.
Vehicles moved slowly through the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle and the main thoroughfares leading to the State Palace during the demonstration.
Hariman was joined at the rally by poet W.S. Redra and lawyer Eggy Sudjana.
A number of student groups took part but kept their distance from Hariman's group. The Muslim Student Association, the People's Revolutionary Movement and the Socialist Student Movement all carried banners identifying themselves.
Noted economist Sjahrir, who participated in the original Malari march and was jailed by the New Order regime as a result, said he attended on Monday to remember the 1974 rally. He said he did not endorse the demands of Hariman and his companions.
Responding to the rally, presidential spokesman Andi Mallarangeng said the demands were unconstitutional. "The President was directly elected by the people and his mandate lasts for five years and he has done a lot for the people," Andi was quoted as saying by Kompas online. Andi asked the politicians behind the protest to wait for the next election if they wanted to replace Yudhoyono.
Some analysts have suggested that Monday's rally simply represented nostalgia for a strong student movement, while others believe it was a show of force designed to gauge how far challenges to the President could go.
A number of politicians have condemned the rally for violating democratic principles.
The secretary general of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Pramono Anung Wibowo, said that while the PDI-P opposed Yudhoyono, it would only attempt to unseat him through a legal election.
Ray Rangkuti, an analyst at the Indonesia Civil Society Circle, said that the protest could disrupt the democratic procedures that had started to take root in the country. "Such a protest will achieve nothing," he told The Jakarta Post.