Right to hold demonstrations

Jakarta is still busy as usual. Demonstrations are being held almost everywhere for different reasons. During the Suharto era, no one could organize a demonstration on any issue. So for a nation that was under a dictatorship for decades, the right to demonstrate is no doubt a precious one.

Nowadays, demonstration has become too commonplace. It is even more mondaine when protestors in a demonstration are not doing it for a cause, but money! There are professional protestors who are willing and able to carry banners, shout slogans and march in Jakarta’s heat and polluted air as though they were protesting something they believed in. You can find the same people the next day in another demonstration wearing a different outfit, carrying a different banner, and shouting a different slogan. And they will do the same thing again the next day, as long as they get paid.

I don’t mind with them, but I just can’t agree if it involves violence. The demonstration ended with the destruction of public and government facilities and in some cases, private premises. The demonstrations have become a public nuisance. In Jakarta traffic jams are already bad enough but with these demonstrations they have worsen.

As for business, demonstrations are a problem. When demonstrations take place on major streets where business offices are located, most of them are forced to close since their employees cannot get to work. This is a cost that no one but businesses affected by demonstrations have to bear. And the more frequently demonstrations happen, the higher the cost to the business community.

Indonesians are proud of their democratic right to hold demonstrations. But when they overdo it, demonstrations become commonplace and when demonstrations get violent, destructive and disruptive to society and business, they are a problem that should be dealt with properly.