212 Alumni Organize "Mujahid 212 Save NKRI" Rally in Jakarta

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Several alumni of the 212 rally staged another rally called the "Mujahid 212 Save NKRI (Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia)" in downtown Jakarta on Saturday.

Budi Setiawan, organizer of the action, had earlier refuted a report of the rally being postponed.

"It is not true. We go ahead with the action. It is not postponed," he noted on Saturday.

Several parties were keen to thwart the implementation of the rally, he pointed out.

Chairman of the organizing committee Edy Mulyadi revealed that the rally began from the Hotel Indonesia (HI) Circle at 8 a.m. local time, and the demonstrators will march toward the palace.

"With the spirit of Mujahid 212, we once again are keen to see a change for the better in Indonesia," he stated.

Muslims are keen to contribute optimally to realize a better Indonesia. This was also since the country's security personnel had employed repressive measures against the demonstrating university students, resulting in injuries to several of them and deaths of many others.

He also expressed concern over a riot in Wamena in Papua Province that resulted in the deaths of over 30 non-native people and compelled more than thousand migrant workers to flee the province.

In the meantime, a series of student protests against several controversial bills, including the Criminal Code Bill and the revised Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Law, continued unabated in several cities on Thursday.

Two students of Halu Oleo University in Southeast Sulawesi were killed during a rally staged in front of the Southeast Sulawesi parliament building in Kendari on Thursday.

The dead students were identified as Randi, 21, a student from Halu Oleo University's Faculty of Fisheries, and Yusuf Kardawi, a student of Halu Oleo University's Faculty of Technology.

On Wednesday, a senior high school student named Bagus Putra Mahendra, 15, died after being struck by a truck while on his way to join other students, who had staged a protest in front of the Indonesian Parliament building in Jakarta.

According to Kompas.com, the police had confirmed the death of Mahendra though denied a report claiming that the truck hit the student while attempting to outrun the police.

The dead student was from Al Jihad Senior High School in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta.

In Makassar, the capital city of South Sulawesi Province, the anti-riot policemen's repressive acts against the demonstrators and journalists, who were covering the protest resulted in injuries to three of them, with one of them being Muh Darwin Fatir of Indonesia's national news agency Antara.

ANTARA