NU urges govt not to raise fuel oil prices

Magelang, NU Online
General Chairman of the Central Board (PBNU) KH Hasyim Muzadi urged the government not to raise fuel oil prices.

According to Hasyim, the government plan to raise the fuel oil prices should be conducted gradually and make sure that the state budget would be secure.<>

While speaking on the sidelines of a conference held by NU of Magelang, Central Java on Sunday (11/5), Hasyim said the fuel oil prices would of cource make people suffer.

While as reported by Antara, hundreds of students staged a protest rally against the government`s plan to raise domestic fuel oil prices as President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono arrived in Surabaya, East Java, to attend the peak event of National Education Day at the Airlangga University campus on Monday.

The students, grouped in the People`s Struggle Front (FPR), first gathered at the Hajj Dormitory on Jalan Kertajaya at 9.30 in the morning and then marched to Kerta Jaya-Darma Husada intersection through which the president`s motorcade was expected to pass.

The protesters from a number of universities in Surabaya waved posters and banners carrying slogans among other things reading : "Reject Fuel Oil Price Hikes", "Lower Prices of Essential Food Supplies."

Faqih Alfian, the rally`s coordinator , said the demonstration this time was supported by students of almost all universities in the East Java provincial city of Surabaya.

"The government`s plan to raise domestic fuel oil prices in June will only add to the misery of destitute people who make up the majority of Indonesia`s population," Alfian said in his oration.

He said the situation in the country at present was getting worse instead of better.

According to him, serious problems such as food crisis, increasing prices of basic commodities, kerosene scarcity, malnutrition, and fuel oil price hikes had worsened the country`s situation.

The situation at Kerta Jaya-Darma Husada intersections became tense when police tried to drive the demonstrators away from their position but no incident happened.

President Yudhoyono and Vice President Jusuf Kalla have lately increasingly become the target of demonstrations against the government`s plan to raise the fuel oil prices.

In Yogyakarta on Friday, the Vice President was also greeted by an anti-fuel-oil price increase demonstration by hundreds of students as he and his wife arrived to attend a traditional ceremony ahead of the marriage of Governor Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X`s daughter. (man)