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Student protest in Jember accuses 'Yudhoyono of doing political summersaults'
Kompas - October 20, 2011
The action by the Jember Indonesian National Students Movement (GMNI) attracted public attention because it coincided with a plenary meeting to revise the 2001 Jember regency budget (APBD). As a consequence, it was closely guarded by security personnel from the Jember Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) and the Jember Municipal Police (Polresta).
Action coordinator Sahru Romadhoni said that the Yudhoyono administration had failed and only carried out political summersaults without prioritising the problems of the nation. The Yudhoyono and Boediono leadership has lied to the public, is incompetent and has left the problems of the nation to pile up.
"In confronting the nation's problems, that are increasingly intertwined and complicated, the president has given up all responsibility and just looks for scapegoats", aid Romadhoni.
The budget allocation for the food sector is extremely high but the importation of fisheries related products is also high, even though national production is huge. The students also asked why the government is still importing salt and rice.
The government repeatedly claims that domestic economic growth is both good and stable with an annual growth rate of 6.5 percent, with a gross domestic product of around 6,300 trillion rupiah in 2010, which is predicted to rise to 7,000 trillion rupiah in 2011, and an average per capita income of 2,252,208.87 per month.
These are only macro indicators however and are flawed, given that more than 32 million Indonesian are only consuming only 2,000-2,500 calories a day.
"We don't know how many of them don't get to eat on a given day. It is natural and justified that for us to say the country and its administration has failed", said Romadhoni, who called on Yudhoyono and Boediono to step down.
The student also called for the supremacy of the law to be upheld, improvements to the political system aimed at political parties that side with the people, improvements to bilateral relations with neighbouring countries, healthcare guarantees for the poor, the complete eradication of corruption in the administration, food security, improvements to education and the even distribution of development.
[Slightly abridged translation by James Balowski.]
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