By Heru Asprihanto and Ananda Teresia
JAKARTA, June 12 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Indonesian students rallied in Jakarta on Friday to protest the spending priorities of President Prabowo Subianto's government, and to protest against this week's decision to raise gasoline prices.
Calling the protest "Heading to Bankrupt Indonesia", university students marched towards central Jakarta's iconic Bundaran HI landmark. Organisers said some of the protesters were blocked from reaching the designated site by police and military personnel.
The government has used subsidies to keep gasoline prices unchanged in Southeast Asia's largest economy, despite a spike in global oil prices caused by the Iran war. But fiscal pressures on the budget from Prabowo's ambitious spending plans have been rising, prompting a substantial price rise earlier this week.
Clad in yellow and blue alma mater jackets, the students carried posters with slogans such as "Cancel the fuel price hike", and used the phrase "Wall of Shame" to describe Prabowo's cabinet. The students also called on incoming cars to honk to show support.
By Friday evening, dozens of students had left the protest area, but there was still a sizeable crowd, and police were standing by.
Yatalathof Ma'shum Imawan, a student leader from the University of Indonesia, said the protesters had five demands, including the cancellation of Prabowo's flagship free meals and village cooperatives programmes, the lowering of fuel and staple food prices and an end to "wasteful" spending.
"Wasteful spending on free meals has led to a fiscal situation where subsidies initially provided had been withdrawn," student protester Rafael Arreva said in front of a police blockade.
Muhammad Qodari, chief of the presidential communications office, said on Friday that the protests were democratic and the government listened to public opinions. He added that the government has cut extraneous spending and said the free meal programme was intended to safeguard public health.
The expansion of military roles in civilian affairs by Prabowo was also a subject of criticism by students and activists, who fear it could drag Indonesia back to the authoritarian rule it endured under former President Suharto.
"We want to show that things are not okay. We don't want Indonesia to truly go bankrupt, but these behaviours prove that Indonesia will go bankrupt economically, democratically, and morally," Yatalathof said.
A Reuters witness saw hundreds of students being blocked by hundreds of police officers and military personnel as they approached the protest location. Scuffles broke out when some protesters tried to break through police lines and metal barricades set up to block their way.
The free meals programme, which aims to reach 83 million children and pregnant women, is seen by Prabowo's critics as inefficient, prone to massive financial leakage and an attempt to win political support in remote areas.
As well, thousands of children have suffered food poisoning from meals served under the programme, raising questions about governance and oversight.
(Reporting by Heru Asprihanto, Ananda Teresia, Johan Purnomo, Stanley Widianto; Editing by Gibran Peshiman, John Mair and David Stanway)
