Ulma Haryanto – After dying from burns sustained when he set himself on fire in an apparent protest at the Presidential Palace, Sondang Hutabarat is becoming a rallying point for movements across the nation.

Rallies to honor his death took place across the country on Monday, with demonstrators all interpreting the act of self-immolation their own way.

In Palembang, South Sumatra, campus-based anticorruption movement Gerak called on students not to be content with attending classes and easy lives, but to go out to the streets to protest government policies that are not pro-people.

Gerak South Sumatra coordinator Nachung Tajuddin called Sondang the "hammer" that would build solidarity among the student movement and the people of Indonesia.

In Jember, East Java, student activists held a march to honor Sondang's death, which they saw as a form of protest against the government's lack of progress in resolving cases of human rights violations.

"Many cases of human rights violations such as the Trisakti [University shooting in 1998], the murder of human rights defender Munir [Said Thalib], and incidents in Papua have not been resolved completely," said M. Sodik, a member of the Indonesian National Students Movement (GMNI) from Jember.

In Malang, East Java, Sondang's act was interpreted as a protest against corruption.

As of Monday afternoon, about a dozen Facebook groups had also been established to commemorate Sondang's act. Some have speculated that it could trigger a bigger protest, similar to the way Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi's act of self-immolation catalyzed the Arab Spring movement.

But national defense analyst Bantarto Bandoro doubted it would have the same level of impact. "The Indonesian government still fares better than the majority of the Arab countries," he said.

"He wanted to raise awareness that there is something wrong with our politics, but what he did is not the start of a revolution." He added, however, that activists and other groups would certainly try and take advantage of the attention surrounding Sondang's death.

Even politicians have done so, with former President Megawati Sukarnoputri saying on Monday that Sondang's act showed there was something wrong with how the country was being run.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, according to his spokesman Daniel Sparingga, said there were a thousand messages in Sondang's death, and people should take from it what they need.

[Additional reporting by Antara, Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Anita Rachman.]