Violent protests after Indonesian bank bailout
Police used teargas against hundreds of protesters which threw stones at them on Tuesday outside the Parliament of Indonesia in Jakarta. It was a demonstration over a controversial bank bail-out which turned violent.
The protesters, armed with sticks, burned flags of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party and threw stones and bottled water at the police. They responded with tear gas and water cannons to split the crowd.
Demonstrators hung banners outside the parliament building declaring “Arrest Century Thieves” and “Change the Regime, Change the System without SBY”, referring to the president by his initials.
“We demand that the Bank Century scandal be ended… the scandal that has destroyed this country, the scandal that has caused 6.7 trillion rupiah to vanish,” a student protester shouted.
The 724-million-dollar bail-out was roughly 10 times bigger than originally approved. This was authorised by the country’s top reformers Vice President Boediono and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati.Inside the parliament building, lawmakers began hearing the findings from a parliamentary inquiry committee over the government’s bail-out of Bank Century in 2008.
They shouted at each other as the recommendations were read out, including whether to prosecute the two most respected economic brains in Yudhoyono’s cabinet, who have been under intense pressure from lawmakers over this issue.
They said they had to save the bank to prevent a systemic economic meltdown at the height of the global economic crisis.
Was this a wise decision from Indonesia’s leaders? What do you think?
