Thousands of protesters set fire to barricades and police stations in Indonesia’s capital on Thursday as the opposition set up a new debatable investment law that critics say would undermine workers’ rights and the environment.
Tens of thousands more people have manifested themselves in the cities of the archipelago since the invoice was approved on Monday, which aims to attract foreign investment by reducing bureaucracy in tax, labor and environmental regulations.
However, labour activists and environmental teams have criticized the legislation and Amnesty International has said it is “catastrophic” for workers.
Smoke rises from fires lit through activist protests in Jakarta Photo: AFP/BAY ISMOYO
Nearly 13,000 police officers deployed Thursday to block government buildings in central Jakarta failed to prevent protesters from reaching the center of the capital.
Protesters set fire to the barricades and set fire to several bus stops and police stations.
Police had banned protests on the grounds that they could spread the coronavirus. At least 300,000 other people have become inflamed in the world’s fourth most populous country, and more than 11,000 have died.
Smokewaves from a bus stop ignited in the chimney through protesters in Jakarta Photo: AFP / ADEK BERRY
Experts, however, claim that the actual figures are much higher, but masked by the lack of evidence.
Riot police fire fuel at protesters in Surabaya Photo: AFP / Juni Kriswanto
Jakarta police spokesman Yusri Yunus said some 1,000 demonstrators had been on thursday.
Some “34 of them are reactive to Covid-19,” he said, which would be remote and retested.
Workers and academics also clashed with police in Makassar, Medan, Malang and Yogyakarta.
“We need the law annuled,” Muhammad Sidhartha told the AFP in Bandung, West Java, adding that regulation “harms Indonesians, only staff like me. “
Although law enforcement is unequal, Indonesia has strict labor laws, especially in relation to foreign companies.
Edi, who like many Indonesians has only one name, said he joined the protests in Makassar on sulawesi Island because the law involved him as a worker.
“Before, we already had minimum wage regulations, yet many corporations still complied,” he said.
“The new law eliminates regulations on this and corporations will pay arbitrarily. “
Indonesians have also expressed their anger online, with hackers blocking the parliament’s online page and turning their so-called “Council of Traitors”.
They created an account on Indonesia’s e-commerce platform Tokopedia and put Parliament “up for sale” for a bite, according to media reports.