A protest took place on August 27 outside the parliament building (DPR) in Jakarta: police used tear gas and water cannon, and several streets were closed until midnight.
By the morning of August 28 the situation had returned to normal — the roads were reopened, and police have reported no new demonstrations.
The crowd was pushed back from the parliament building toward the city toll road tunnel, and the toll road operator temporarily closed several entrances into the centre. Jalan Gatot Subroto heading toward the Slipi area and the toll road entrance remained closed until midnight.
Several different groups gathered outside the parliament at the same time. Some called for the passage of a law on the confiscation of assets from corrupt officials and for the return of the death penalty for those convicted of corruption — that same day the parliament's leadership agreed with this group to pass the law no later than mid-December, and the group dispersed peacefully. Others raised a broader range of issues, from the price of goods to labour rights, while some participants had come, on the contrary, to show support for the government's social programmes.
Anyone planning to be in Jakarta in the coming days should check the situation before setting out and, where possible, plan a route that avoids the parliament and Senayan area — Jalan Gatot Subroto runs there too. Jakarta police usually give advance warning of new demonstrations and road closures on their social media.
Jakarta is on the island of Java, hundreds of kilometres from Bali, and it is the country's capital and business centre. So far the protests have remained around the single parliament building in Senayan.
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