Surabaya – A number of civil society groups in the East Java provincial capital of Surabaya collectively calling themselves the Surabaya Aware Alliance (Aliansi Surabaya Sadar) held a demonstration on Thursday afternoon October 22 to mark the two-year anniversary of the administration of President Prabowo Subianto and Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka.
Before gathering in front of the Grahadi State Building, the hundreds of protesters all dressed in black marched from the Bambu Runcing Monument on Jalan Panglima Sudirman toward the Grahadi State Building on Jalan Gubernur Suryo.
Upon arriving at the protest site at around 3 pm the crowd formed a circle on Jalan Gubernur Suryo.
The participants then took turns delivering speeches and voicing their concerns, while displaying various protest banners with messages such as "All Eyes on Karhutla", "Surabaya be Aware", "Two Years Is Enough" and "Fuel Shortages".
Field Coordinator (korlap) Daniel Situmorang said that the demonstration was a grassroots collective movement involving various elements of civil society.
The demonstrators deliberately took to the streets without carrying the flags or insignia of their respective organisations in order to show the merging of group identities into a single joint movement of solidarity.
"This is a collective movement from a united alliance from university students, there are also trade unions, then there are also those from workers and other civil society [groups]", Situmorang said during a break in the action.
In a statement of their aspirations, the protesters explicitly voiced their dissatisfaction with the first two years of the Prabowo-Gibran administration. They believe that the policies implemented thus far have failed to deliver any tangible positive impact, and instead they have in fact created new problems in society.
The protesters also highlighted the environmental crisis, specifically the forest and land fires (Karhutla) currently affecting regions across Kalimantan, Sumatra and Papua.
They urged the government to immediately designate the forest and land fires as a national disaster bearing in mind the loss of life and the suffering endured by residents due to acute respiratory infections (ISPA).
"The Karhutla are still occurring in Kalimantan, Sumatra, in Papua, in Merauke and so forth, we demand that their status be declared a national disaster. There is no need for petty bureaucratic administrative issues if you want to designate it, it must be like this first, it must be like this first. Lives have already been lost", he said.
To secure the protest action, the police installed barbed wire in front of the Grahadi Building and deployed a number of personnel along with tactical vehicles designed for crowd dispersal around the location.
In response to the tight security, the protesters satirically remarked that it would be better if these facilities and state resources be deployed at environmental crisis points.
"I think that those water cannons that are here, yeah, rather than being fired at protesters, it would be better if they were sent to Kalimantan to douse the burning forests", said Situmorang, who is also an activist with the Airlangga University (Unair) Student Executive Board (BEM).
The protesters emphasised that from the outset they had no intention or objective to engage in dialogue with representatives of the East Java provincial government inside the building.
They planned to disperse in an orderly fashion should the situation become unfavourable, but affirmed that this wave of protests would continue.
"But I can assure you that this is not the last protest. There will be more to come and we will remain and our numbers will multiply", said Situmorang.
The adverse impacts of the forest fires were personally articulated by protest participant Muhammad Athar Farizi from East Kalimantan, who is current pursuing his studies at Unair in Surabaya
Farizi was able to give a speech amid the mass of protesters. He even becoming visibly emotional and broke into sobs as he recounted the events and impact of the forest fires that have been experienced by his family.
He explained that his family and the local residents in his home region are suffering greatly due to exposure to the thick smoke from the forest and land fires that have paralysed daily activities.
"The conditions for my family in Kalimantan, daily routines, work, it's their respiratory health that is most affected", said Farizi.
He also said he felt deeply disappointment about the sluggish and indifferent attitude of policymakers, both at the local and central government levels. He believes that it is as if the government has turned a blind eye to the suffering of the ordinary people.
"You in the Presidential Palace, in the offices of regents, mayors, and governors, you just enjoy the job. It is we the little people who feel the impact", said Farizi.
The protest action ended with the placement of a white banner inscribed with the demonstrators' four demands on the statue of Governor Suryo in heart of Apsari Park across from the Grahadi building. (kid/frd/kid)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Masyarakat Sipil Surabaya Gelar Aksi Soroti Karhutla".]