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Thousands of protesters have rallied in Indonesia’s biggest cities seeking to pile pressure on the government to reverse the country’s first subsidized fuel price hike in eight years amid soaring inflation.
Protests were underway in and around the capital Jakarta on Tuesday and in the cities of Surabaya, Makassar, Kendari, Aceh, and Yogyakarta, as part of a series of demonstrations led by students and labor unions that police say could draw tens of thousands of people on to streets this week.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo said he had little choice when he announced on Saturday an increase in subsidized fuel prices by about 30 percent, an unpopular move in the country of 270 million people.
Oil prices are now about 32 percent higher than a year ago.