Students Plan More Protests After Failing to Meet Jokowi

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - University students are planning to stage more protests until they can meet with the president. Bilal Soekarno, chairman of the BEM UPN Veterans Jakarta, said that the students were disappointed because the Indonesian Student Alliance (AMI) failed to meet President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo during a protest on April 21.

Bilal said that the AMI will hold more, bigger demonstrations until Jokowi is willing to accept the masses and hear them out directly.

"We will spread anger throughout Indonesia. We will make Indonesia angry over the state's inability to listen to its people's aspirations," said Bilal in his statement, Friday, April 22.

Bilal also said they would increase the number of people in the next demonstration. Not only students, AMI plans to collaborate with other elements in the follow-up protests. He did not give the specific time and date, but said that they will "flood the streets with dots of anger".

On Thursday's protest, students packed the Jalan Merdeka Barat, demanding seven demands. One of them is for President Jokowi to make a written statement rejecting extending the presidential term.

The demonstration ended without any Palace representatives meeting the students. The head of the Presidential Secretariat, Heru Budi Hartono, said that Jokowi had left for Bogor's Cisarua Market in the morning for a working visit.

Read: Mass Protest; Police Install Barbed Wire Barricade before DPR Building

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