Hundreds of women wearing pink and wielding broomsticks marched to parliament in Indonesia’s capital on Wednesday to protest against police abuses and wasteful government spending.
Protests in Jakarta and other key cities have stretched into their second week, fuelled by anger over cost of living issues and lavish perks for MPs.
They turned violent after young motorcycle taxi driver Affan Kurniawan was killed when he was run over by a police vehicle.
As protests intensified, President Prabowo Subianto said he would cancel a trip to Beijing to attend China’s massive military parade, but he was seen posing for a group photo on Wednesday, alongside Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Before his China trip, Prabowo said over the weekend that he would roll back perks for lawmakers – one of the core complaints of the protesters.
During Wednesday’s rally, pink-clad female protesters from the Indonesian Women’s Alliance (IWA) said the broomsticks symbolised their desire to “sweep away the dirt of the state, militarism and police repression”.
The protesters also waved signs with the words “reform the police”.
“Protests are not crimes, but rather democratic rights inherent in every citizen,” one of the protesters, Mutiara Ika, told BBC Indonesia.
The IWA is a political group comprised of 90 women’s organisations and movements, as well as various civil society groups including labor unions, human rights organisations and indigenous communities.
The women’s movement has a history of standing up to regimes in Indonesia, playing a crucial role in past waves of protest. Similar to the current demonstrations, women took a stand against Suharto’s authoritarian rule leading up to the 1998 reform movement.
The IWA says their choice of the colour pink symbolises bravery.
Other protesters have opted for green – the colour of Affan’s rideshare company uniform – in a display of solidarity.
Credit: bbc.com
