Student groups and activists plan to hold rallies on Jan. 28 and Jan. 29 in Jakarta to mark the first 100 days of the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and to pressure Yudhoyono and Vice President Boediono to step down.
Haris Rusli Muchti, a coordinator for the Petition of 28 Forum, said dozens of activists from local student and labor organizations had held a number of meetings to prepare for the rallies.
"We demand that SBY and Boediono resign because citizens can no longer expect anything from them to resolve our country's problems," he said on Sunday.
Haris said Jan. 28 and Jan, 29 would be "the days that mark the failure of the SBY-Boediono government." He called on students to join the movement to oust the pair from their positions due to their failure to lead the country.
Among the indication of their failure, he said, was the recent friction between the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the National Police and now tensions within the police itself.
Haris said the cases were linked to the government's controversial decision to bail out PT Bank Century, which some critics have alleged benefitted Yudhoyono and his close aides.
"It shows the incapability of the current government to manage the country as we can also see that there is a growing number of poor people," Haris said.
An alliance of 30 university students associations in Jakarta announced on Sunday that they would join the demonstrations.
"Around 10,000 students are ready to join in. On January 28, we will occupy the State Palace to force SBY and Boediono out," alliance spokesman Anton Cornelo said.
Anton stressed that their decision to demonstrate was free from political intervention. "This movement is not just a common crowd and we are not being exploited by any political party. It is purely from Indonesian students," he said.
A threat to hold a mass rally against the SBY-Boediono government was announced by another member of the Petition of 28 Forum, Adhie Massardi, during a press conference in Jakarta on Jan. 3.
Besides Haris and Adhie, who was a presidential spokesman for late former President Abdurrahman Wahid, other figures involved in the forum include retired Army Chief Gen. Tyasno Sudarto and political analysts Bonny Hargens and Bingki Irawan. None of the figures has any party affiliations.
Fears of political unrest and traffic gridlock proved unfounded on International Anticorruption Day, when only around 5,000 demonstrators gathered in Jakarta to call for the ouster of Yudhoyono and Boediono in the wake of the Bank Century scandal.