The China Mail - 'Eat the rich': Indonesians protest against graft, wildfires

Many demonstrators held up the three-finger salute of rebellion from dystopian franchise "The Hunger Games", and waved posters with angry messages such as: "Hungry? Eat the Rich!"

One sign read, "No Clean Air Under Dirty Government", while another blared, using a pejorative for President Prabowo Subianto: "Hey Wok! Nobody paid us. We all hate you for free."

Protester Sekar, 37, told AFP her "heart is shattered" by the plight of compatriots battling months of wildfires and haze while also contending with the effects of a weakening currency and higher prices.

"I came here from home with the intention of protecting the students" who called the demonstration, Sekar told AFP.

"I will be looking for any police officers who lay hands on them and take them away, and I will be the first to step forward to defend them."

Police said about 14,000 of its officers, as well as soldiers, had deployed to keep a lid on the demonstrations.

The protest organising committee, which calls itself SADAR, meaning "aware" in Bahasa Indonesia, said the action was meant to mark a "revolution that is being proclaimed".

The group is demanding that the government declare a national emergency to unlock more resources to fight wildfires across the vast archipelago.

Deforestation monitor Nusantara Atlas says the blazes have destroyed more than 1.9 million hectares in the nine months to September.

- 'They cannot breathe' -

"Hundreds and thousands of people are suffering" from the fires, said protester Annette Mau, 47, of the Indonesian Mothers' Alliance, an NGO.

"Tens of thousands of babies are suffering from health problems. They cannot breathe" because of the fires emitting a toxic haze that has spread far across the region.

The pollution has also damaged Indonesia's relations with its neighbours.

Singapore's Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan was expected to meet Prabowo in Jakarta on Wednesday.

The day before, Balakrishnan said the haze was "not a natural phenomenon" and the fires "were caused by human action".

Annette accused the government of "trying to cover" up the problem rather than address it.

"They're trying to make excuses," she said.

"We are being oppressed by the tyrannical regime."

A statement sent to AFP by protest organisers said that under Prabowo, "the sovereignty of the ruling class takes precedence over the sovereignty of the people".

"The oligarchy has placed its own interests above those of the people," it added, pointing to "mismanagement of the debt-burdened economy; environmental and energy exploitation that has triggered an ecological crisis; and the erosion of the rule of law and democracy".

There were also protests in other cities.

K.Lam--ThChM