Welcome Guest   |  Login   |   Signup
JG Logo
Sat, May 26, 2012
Archive Search

Self-Immolation at Palace Could Stay a Mystery
Raisa Premiera, Arientha Primanita & Zaky Pawas | December 08, 2011

Members of Campus Network outside the hospital. They say the victim set himself on fire over government policies. (Antara Photo/M. Agung Rajasa) Members of Campus Network outside the hospital. They say the victim set himself on fire over government policies. (Antara Photo/M. Agung Rajasa)
Share This Page
11
7
0
5
Share with google+ :


Post a comment
Please login to post comment

Comments

ishtar
8:44pm Dec 13, 2011

If he did speak against the government before he died, those were curses. And as he was on the right side, those curses are not to ignore. SBY and his cronies should repent.

Superstitions? Let's see...


jacen83
2:21pm Dec 9, 2011

If it turns out he was a poverty stricken Betawi who couldn't make ends meet and whose wife died of TB due to lack of medical attention, then the country will go nuts and riot all over Jakarta.

If it turns out he was an Ahmadi protesting religious persecution, no one will care. They might even say, "one more down".

But seriously, if you are going to set yourself on fire - probably the most extreme physical act one can possibly do to oneself, at least tell someone why first.

But Dean is right - don't even quote what the lawmakers say - they are the ones who should be burned alive in their own building - not this poor man.

blightyboy
6:31am Dec 9, 2011

This is an act of such tormented desperation, so excruciatingly extreme, that one only associates it with monks and places like China or Burma, where people have lost all hope, where life for millions is a desperate and endless torture, where there are dictatorial and inhuman governments, where corruption rules and the poor masses only know poverty, squalor and degradation. How can this happen here in Indonesia, and in front of the Presidents palace?

JakartaDean
11:30pm Dec 8, 2011

"Anas Urbaningrum, chairman of the ruling Democratic Party, blamed the incident on economic factors, suggesting that poverty pushed people to desperation."

JG, can I suggest you refrain from giving any platform to these lying [edit] going forward? I know you have journalistic standards and all, but the DPR members, and party officials, son't deserve them. There is enough evidence that they are raping the poor for their own gain that you shouldn't spread their BS.

Humbly, and without any hope you will stand up for journalism,

Dean

blightyboy
10:40pm Dec 8, 2011

“We think that every living creature’s life is a blessing from God and that nobody should waste that blessing,” said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's spokesperson in a text message to the Jakarta Globe."

Except of course less you happen to be an Ahmadis, a Christian or an Orangutan, in which case you are (edit)!

  • Previous
  • 1
  • Next

Hopes are dim for the still unidentified man who appears to have set himself on fire near the State Palace on Wednesday in a desperate act that has shocked the nation.

The man, believed to be about 40 years old, survived the incident, but on Thursday evening was in critical condition in the intensive care unit of Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital (RSCM) in Central Jakarta.

Speaking during a news conference at the state-run hospital on Thursday, Akmal Taher, the hospital director, said the man had burns to 97 percent of his body, making it unlikely he would survive.

“We are trying to save him but it will be difficult to do so,” he said, adding that the man was on a respirator to help him breathe.

Burns to the man’s face will hamper efforts to identify him, Akmal said.

So far, nobody has come forward to identify the man.

Outside the hospital, about a dozen people, who began gathering on Wednesday night, claimed the man had deliberately set himself on fire in protest.

The people, calling themselves Jaringan Kampus (Campus Network), were distributing an open letter expressing sympathy for the victim, whom they believed set himself on fire in anger at the central government.

They compared the incident to the self-immolation of Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi, whose protest sparked the Arab Spring uprisings.

Jati, a member of the group, claimed that he had spoken to a witness who told him that the man, who approached the Presidential Palace from the National Monument (Monas), poured three bottles of gasoline over himself and screamed antigovernment messages before setting himself on fire.

Jati added that the witness told him that as the man burned, he continued to walk toward the palace before collapsing. If true, it would be the first protest of its kind in Indonesia.

But the Central Jakarta Police’s chief of operations, Sr. Comr. Abdul Karim, said that as far as the police knew, there were no witnesses who could confirm how or why the man set himself on fire.

“No one heard the man screaming. Witnesses only noticed him once he was on fire,” Abdul said.

Spokesman Daniel Sparingga said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was monitoring efforts to save the man’s life.

“We think that every living creature’s life is a blessing from God and that nobody should waste that blessing,” he said in a text message to the Jakarta Globe.

Daniel said that people were free to express their opinions, but they should do so in a civilized, religious and humane way.

He said that whatever the man’s motivation had been, “We feel sorry about the incident and we hope that it will be the last that we see in our lifetime.”

Anas Urbaningrum, chairman of the ruling Democratic Party, blamed the incident on economic factors, suggesting that poverty pushed people to desperation.

“The most important thing is for the government to work hard to improve the national economy and to distribute the benefits to the people,” he said.