Dozens of students staged a protest rally against the government`s plan to raise domestic fuel oil prices as President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono arrived in Mamuju, West Sulawesi, for a dialog with local farmers and fishermen in the country`s youngest province.
The students held their rally in front of the Tomakaka University campus which lies on a main street through which the President Yudhoyono`s motorcade was expected to pass.<>
But their activity was halted by hundreds security personnel who were on guard around the campus.
There was a skirmish when the police tried to drive the demonstrators away from the campus but the situation was later brought under control.
In their orations, the demonstrating students asked the government to cancel its plan to raise domestic fuel oil prices because, they said, it would only increase the misery of destitute people who make up the majority of Indonesia`s population.
They also asked the government to lower basic commodity prices, to revoke the laws on oil and gas and on foreign investment, to nationalize all state assets, and to quit the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in order to avoid becoming dependent on world oil prices.
Meanwhile, when President Yudhoyono arrived in Surabaya, East Java, on Monday to attend the peak event of National Education Day, he was also greeted by a similar rally by hundreds of students in the city.
The students, grouped in the People`s Struggle Front (FPR), first gathered at the Hajj Dormitory on Jalan Kertajaya at 9.30 in the morning and then marched to Kerta Jaya-Darma Husada intersection through which the president`s motorcade was expected to pass.
The protesters from a number of universities in Surabaya waved posters and banners carrying slogans among other things reading : "Reject Fuel Oil Price Hikes", "Lower Prices of Essential Food Supplies."
Faqih Alfian, the rally`s coordinator, said the demonstration this time was supported by students of almost all universities in the East Java provincial city of Surabaya. (ant)
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