Protesters have torched parliamentary buildings in three further Indonesian provinces, a day after at least three people were killed by a fire started by demonstrators at a council building in the city of Makassar.
Protests erupted across Indonesia after footage spread showing a motorcycle taxi driver being run over and killed by a police vehicle on Thursday night during earlier demonstrations over low wages for workers and perks for lawmakers.
Regional parliamentary buildings in West Nusa Tenggara, Pekalongan city in Central Java and Cirebon city in West Java were set ablaze by protesters on Saturday, Reuters reported, citing local media.
Indonesia’s national police chief, Listyo Sigit Prabowo, said the president had ordered authorities to act decisively against protesters who broke the law. The announcement came after the president, Prabowo Subianto, appealed for calm and in a statement on Friday said he had ordered a “thorough and transparent investigation” into the death of the driver, Affan Kurniawan, and urged the public to trust his government.
Protests in Makassar in eastern Indonesia descended into chaos on Friday outside city council buildings, which were set on fire, and vehicles were set ablaze as protesters hurled rocks and molotov cocktails.
Three people were killed as a result of the fire at the Makassar city council building, its secretary, Rahmat Mappatoba, told AFP.
“They were trapped in the burning building,” he said, accusing protesters of storming the office to set the building on fire.
“This is beyond our prediction. Usually during a demonstration, protesters only threw rocks or burn a tyre in front of the office. They never stormed into the building or burned it,” Mappatoba added.
Two of the victims were local council staff and another was a civil servant. Two died at the scene and one died in hospital. At least four people were injured in the fire and are being treated in hospital, the official said.
Images showed the provincial council building ablaze overnight, but the fire has since been extinguished.
Protesters at the South Sulawesi provincial council building tried to knock down the gate and storm in.
In Jakarta, hundreds of people gathered outside the headquarters of the elite Mobile Brigade Corp paramilitary police unit, which they blamed for the death of the motorcycle taxi driver, throwing firecrackers as police responded with teargas.
A group of protesters tried to tear down the gates of the unit, which is notorious for its heavy-handed tactics, and pulled a sign from the building’s facade in chaotic scenes.
Police said they had detained seven officers for questioning in connection with the driver’s death.
The protests were the biggest and most violent of Subianto’s presidency less than a year into his rule. Subianto has promised fast, state-driven growth but has already faced protests for widespread budget cuts to fund his populist policies, including a $1bn free meal programme.
The driver’s death caused anger that had been brewing over government perks and the cost of living crisis to boil over. Since Monday, thousands of protesters have demonstrated in the capital against a monthly housing allowance for MPs that amounts to almost 10 times the Jakarta minimum wage amid the president’s austerity drive.
Protests also spread to other big Indonesian cities on Friday, including Yogyakarta, Bandung, Semarang and Surabaya in Java and Medan in North Sumatra province.
