Detik.com
- October 20, 2009
Taufik
Wijaya, Palembang – The inauguration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and
Vice President Boediono on October 20 was also greeted by protest actions in
Palembang, South Sumatra, demanding that Yudhoyono and Boediono prove that they
are not adherents of neoliberalism.
The action
by around 100 students from the Indonesian National Students Movement (GMNI)
began at around 9am with a long march to the South Sumatra governor’s office
then on to the Palembang Regional House of Representatives (DPRD). The protests
also brought leaflets, pamphlets and a red-and-blue banner reading “Oil, gas
and coal, sold cheap overseas.”
During the
action at the governor’s office, two GMNI representatives read out a statement
condemning the slow pace of the investigation into the Century Bank scandal and
saying that the government officials involved in the case – including Boediono
as the then governor of the central bank – must be purged. They added that the
Century Bank case was just part of Yudhoyono’s administration’s failures along
with economic, social and security problems that occurred due to the
application of neoliberal policies.
The group
also accused Yudhoyono of seeking loans from colonialist countries, which have
not only placed a burden on the state budget, but have also become an entry
point for the neoliberalism, privatisation, trade liberalisation, bank
deregulation and unemployment. (tw/djo)
[Abridged
translation by James Balowski.]
