Students Want to Meet Openly with Jokowi

Jakarta, MINA – All Indonesia College Student Executive Board Alliance (BEM SI) expressed their readiness to meet Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) on condition that it be held openly and broadcast live on national television.

“The All Indonesia BEM Alliance is only willing to meet with the President if, first, it is carried out openly and can be witnessed directly by the public through national television channels,” said SI BEM Alliance Coordinator Muhammad Nurdiyansyah in a written statement received on Friday, September 27.

Previously, President Jokowi had invited students and was scheduled to meet today at the Palace.

The BEM SI Alliance argued they had been invited to the State Palace once in 2015. However, the invitation was carried out in a closed room.

“The results are clear, the student movement is divided. We learn from this process and do not want to be a tool for the rulers who are facing a crisis of public legitimacy so that they have finally forgotten the substance related to some of the demands for action submitted, “Nurdiansyah said.

Thousands of students staged a demonstration in front of the capitol and House of Representative building in Jakarta on Tuesday. In the action, there were 7 demands of students voiced.

The 7 demands of students related to the ratification of Draft Law on the Criminal Law Act (RUU KUHP). President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) himself requested that the ratification be postponed temporarily.

First, students urge a delay to do re-discussion. Because the articles in the RKUP are considered problematic.

Second, the government was also urged to cancel the revision of KPK Law that had just been passed. The KPK Law Revision is considered to make anti-corruption institution weak in eradicating the actions of corruptors.

Third, the demands of students are related to environmental issues. Students demanded that the state investigate and prosecute the elites responsible for environmental damage in Indonesian territory.

Fourth, there are also demands to revise the Labor Bill. Students assess the rules are not in favor of the workers.

Fifth, students also reject the Land Bill in 7 student demands. They considered the rule as a form of betrayal of the spirit of agrarian reform.

Sixth, in the demonstration, the students requested that the government and the House Representative to postpone the ratification of the Bill on the Elimination of Sexual Violence (PKS).

Finally, 7 student demands are to encourage the democratic process in Indonesia. So far, the state is considered to have criminalized activists.(LT/Sj/P2)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)