Indonesia protesters demand tougher graft penalties

Hundreds of Indonesians marched on parliament in Jakarta on Thursday to demand tougher penalties for corrupt officials, while riot police kept demonstrators outside the legislature's closed gates.

Protesters carried a long red-and-white national flag and hung a banner saying: “The corrupt get rich while the people suffer.” Some tried to storm the gate, while others threw trash and objects into the parliamentary grounds.

Jakarta police said earlier that 18,500 officers had been deployed to secure the capital's streets amid public anger over economic hardship and inequality. Police also said they had detained 65 people ahead of the march on suspicion of being “provocateurs”, and that some allegedly had Molotov cocktails.

The demonstrators want parliament to pass a bill, pending since 2008, that would allow the seizure of assets from corrupt officials. Some at the rally also called for the death penalty for corrupt officials.

They also demanded an end to the government's costly free school meals programme, a signature project of President Prabowo Subianto that has faced graft allegations and mass food poisonings.

Demonstrator Dian Purmomo, a 50-year-old author, said the government needed to “wake up” and accused officials of pushing programmes that benefit themselves.

Thursday's protest came almost a year after nationwide demonstrations over lawmakers' perks erupted into riots in which a dozen people were killed and thousands arrested.