Indonesian students protest rising prices, government’s handling of forest fires

Hundreds of Indonesian students took to the streets on Wednesday (Oct 28) to protest rising prices, dwindling subsidies as well as the government’s handling of forest fires.



In Jakarta, protesters from different universities and non-for-profit organisations flocked to Jalan Thamrin and Jalan Sudirman, two of the city’s busiest thoroughfares where many local and foreign companies are headquartered, carrying banners critical of President Prabowo Subianto’s policies.



They also called on the government to declare the ongoing wildfires in Sumatra and Kalimantan a national disaster and to halt spending on populist programmes such as Prabowo's free meals scheme, which have caused state spending to balloon at the expense of more critical programmes like disaster mitigation and infrastructure development. .



The protesters also criticised Indonesia’s decision in late September to cut energy subsidies from 376.8 trillion rupiah this year to 261 trillion rupiah next year.