JAKARTA, Oct 14 (NNN-BERNAMA) — Another protest against labour-related laws took place in Jakarta on Tuesday amid the province recorded another daily tally of more than a 1,000 new COVID-19 cases.
With 1,054 cases reported in the last 24 hours, Jakarta has the most number of total cases to date at 89,228.
Tuesday’s peaceful demonstration, which was attended by thousands of workers and students, took place from 1 pm to about 4 pm.
However, like on Oct 8, certain groups tried to cause chaos by throwing stones at the police.
“The Coronavirus (COVID-19) affects (only) one generation, the Omnibus Law will affect seven generations,” screamed a teenager, referring to the legislation passed in Parliament on Oct 5.
The law proposed by President Joko Widodo last year is aimed at reducing various bureaucratic measures to encourage foreign investment into Indonesia to create more employment opportunities.
According to Jakarta Police Public Relations chief Yusri Yunus, more than 12,000 police and army personnel had been deployed to control the demonstration which took place at the Merdeka Square and horse statue near Istana Negara (State Palace).
As of 6 pm, the police and army were still seen dispersing small groups trying to provoke riots in several areas around the city.
On Oct 8, Jakarta police detained more than 1,000 rioters, mostly students and young people, a large number of whom did not seem to know anything about the law.
Jakarta Deputy Governor Ahmad Riza Patria in a statement earlier said that the demonstration and rioting on Oct 8 had resulted in the loss of property and public facilities worth more than Rp55 billion (US$3.7 million).
The Indonesian government has stated that several clauses of the law have been made viral with false facts via various social media platforms.
Based on data published by the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) on its official twitter page @BNPB_Indonesia on Tuesday, the total number of positive cases in the republic had reached 340,622 cases, with an additional 3,906 cases within the last 24 hours.
There were also 92 casualties recorded within the same period, with the total number of COVID-19 deaths in the republic now at 12,207.