Jakarta Globe – Students around the country marked the inauguration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Boediono on Tuesday with protests, making demands ranging from the establishment of a government free of corruption to revocation of the controversial education law.
The number of students participating in the protests was relatively small and the rallies proceeded peacefully, except in Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara, where police officers arrested four student protesters for burning a photograph of the president in front of the Provincial Legislative Council building. According to state news agency Antara, the four students, who were not named, were still undergoing police questioning late on Tuesday afternoon.
In Semarang, Central Java, more than 100 students calling themselves the Semarang Students Organization and Volunteers for the Country's Freedom, staged a protest rally at the city's Jalan Pahlawan Semarang traffic circle before marching to the Municipal Legislative Council building.
The students demanded that the upcoming cabinet establish a democratic, clean government and independent economy that empowered all Indonesians. They also called for continued reform of the National Police and the Armed Forces.
In Tasikmalaya, West Java, members of the Indonesian Moslem Students Action Group (Kammi) demanded that the new cabinet be free from corruption, with no more "internal and external" matters allowed to hamper the pursuit of graft.
In Yogyakarta, hundreds of students also held a protest rally, saying they would give the incoming government 100 days to resolve the country's problems and that they would declare Yudhoyono's administration a failure if it did not meet this deadline.
They also urged the government to revoke the controversial Education Legal Entity Law, which scraps government subsidies for state-owned universities, raising fears of commercialization of learning in the country, and the Foreign Investment Law, which they said promoted a neoliberal economy.
Students in Tulungagung, East Java rallied to demand that Yudhoyono and Boediono appoint non-party ministers in the next cabinet, which the president said would be unveiled on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, in Pekanbaru, Riau, residents conducted two separate rallies asking the new leaders to fulfill their election promises.