Veteran ABC journalist David Lipson has captured a moment he described as “peak Indonesia” during tense protests in Jakarta.
The national broadcaster’s South East Asia correspondent shared a photograph on Twitter on Tuesday showing police and protesters sharing a rare moment of calm.
In it, the two parties are separated by a small wall, breaking fast during Ramadan.
Peak Indonesia: Riot police and protesters break fast together pic.twitter.com/aiTVXs231n
— David Lipson (@davidlipson) May 21, 2019
The tweet was shared more than 9000 times.
Clashes in the capital have intensified as security forces attempt to quell anger from protesters over the result of last month’s presidential election.
Jakarta has been described as a “battlefield” of tear gas, rubber bullets and rocks.
Protesters tore up slabs of pavement, destroyed street signs and set fire to food stalls and security posts.
The capital’s governor, Anies Baswedan, said six people were killed in the first night of rioting, which was concentrated in the sprawling textile market neighbourhood of Tanah Abang.
News agency Antara reported three hospitals had so far treated more than 350 people.
The unrest followed an announcement on Tuesday by the General Election Commission confirming President Joko Widodo had beaten his challenger, former general Prabowo Subianto, in the April 17 poll.
Mr Widodo won more than 85 million of 154 million votes cast, but Mr Subianto alleged “massive cheating and irregularities” and refused to concede defeat.
The election supervisory agency has said there was no evidence of systematic cheating, and independent observers have said the poll was free and fair.
A crowd of protesters duly swelled outside the supervisory agency’s headquarters on Wednesday, some carrying wooden poles and some with toothpaste smeared around their eyes to mitigate the effects of tear gas.
Many of the protesters appeared to have come from outside Jakarta, and police found envelopes containing money on some of the people they searched, national police spokesman Muhamad Iqbal said.
“This is not a spontaneous incident, this is something by design. There are indications that the mobs are paid and bent on causing chaos,” he said.
Vice President Jusuf Kalla called on Mr Subianto and his running mate, Sandiaga Uno, to rein in their supporters.
Mr Subianto has called for peaceful protests and restraint.
“I urge all sides, the people who are expressing their aspirations, the police, the military and all sides to refrain from physical abuse,” he said on Wednesday.
His political party, Gerindra, said on Twitter: “We saw efforts to herd public opinion so that the peaceful protest would look like disturbing acts, with an end goal of discrediting Mr. Prabowo.”
A Subianto campaign official said his camp planned to contest the result of the election — which gave Mr Widodo a 55.5 per cent share of votes — in the Constitutional Court on Thursday.
Mr Subianto also launched an unsuccessful legal challenge after he was defeated by Mr Widodo in the 2014 election.
Analysts have said Mr Widodo’s double-digit margin of victory means the Opposition does not have a strong case to claim rigging. However, Islamist supporters of Mr Subianto could cause considerable disruption.
With Reuters
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May 23, 2019 at 01:21PM
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