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Image: Protesters in Renon yesterday. Credit: Denpasar Now
Thousands of Bali college students held a demonstration to protest the revision drafts of Criminal Code (KUHP) and the Corruption Eradication Commission Regulations on Tuesday. They also delivered their concerns about the uncontrolled fires burning in Kalimantan and Sumatran forests. They gathered around on eastern parking area of Lapangan Puputan Renon in Denpasar at around 12 noon before they marched to the Bali Regional Representative Offices.
“We want to let all communities of Indonesia, especially the Balinese community, that Bali won’t stay silent when there are many issues about the KUHP and KPK Regulation Revision Drafts, the out of control fires, and human right violations in Papua,” said the Head of #BaliTidakDiam Action, Abror Torik Tanjilla, to nusabali.com before they marched to the Regional Representative Offices.
They also showed their support to 30 Bali college students who were appointed to go to Jakarta to represent Bali at the demonstration there. He also said that his side would send more men to Jakarta if the condition became more unconducive and the process of KUHP Regulation revision draft is continued.
“If it is needed, we will also go to Jakarta, because we need protect our democracy and won’t let them corrupt our reformation,” he added.
However, all of the Bali Regional Representatives were absent yesterday. “There is no one here. The new Regional Representatives haven’t been decided yet,” said a security of the office.
The gate of the office was also closed and heavily guarded, and the demonstration continued in the street in front of the office. “We will come again, you cannot hide,” said some of the college students. “We will fight against all of Representative members,” they added.
They also asked the security to open the gate. Since no one paid attention to their request, they installed a banner which said that the office was for sale. After they sounded their aspirations, they moved to Bali Governor’s Office, which is only 100 meters from the Regional Representative Offices. But, like on Regional Representative Office, Bali Governor was not in the office yesterday. “Actually we wanted to meet regional representative and governor. Since we couldn’t meet them today, we will hold another demonstration in the near future,” Abror Torik explained.
Meanwhile, the Head of East Denpasar Polsek, Commissioner I Nyoman Karang Adiputra, said that his side has appointed 300 personnel to monitor the demonstration. “We estimated that there were hundreds of college students who participate on the demonstration. After we calculated, there were thousands of college students who participate on the demonstration,” he said. The personnel were divided into four areas, which are on eastern parking area, Bali Fight Monument (Bajra Sandhi), in front of Bali Regional Representative Office, and in front of Bali Governor Office.
Meanwhile, tourism to Bali seems to be little affected.
“There were cancellations initially, but after socialization from the local government of Bali they have begun ignoring this issue and keep coming to Bali,” said Bali Tourism Board Chairman Ida Bagus Agung Partha Adnyana when contacted by Detik.com on Wednesday (09/25/2019).
Agung did not take lightly the travel warning related to the RKUHP issued by the Australin government last week making tourists hesitate to holiday in Indonesia. Luckily, the readiness of the Bali Provincial Government together with the stakeholders to provide an explanation regarding this issue could restore the confidence of tourists to continue vacationing on the Island of the Gods.
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