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Police and soldiers were out in force on Batam island yesterday in a sharp clampdown on protests, a day after angry workers demanding higher minimum wages took to the streets, vandalizing buildings and police posts.

In a bid to restrict attempts to stage protests, police stopped workers on motorcycles heading towards the town center and dispersed the fewer than 100 who managed to reach the mayor’s office.

Officers also descended on factories round the island, checking workers’ identity cards and warning non-employees to leave, to prevent protesters from inciting fellow workers to join rallies.

The clampdown came after workers, reportedly by the thousand, downed tools and marched through several industrial zones on Thursday. Cars were torched and windows smashed in the process.

The street protests were sparked by earlier clashes between workers rallying mainly outside the mayor’s office and anti-riot police, who fired rubber bullets and tear gas in the ensuing clash.

“The conditions in Batam are now stable,” Batam police spokesman Hartono said yesterday. “The number of personnel deployed is enough to cover the places that need security,” he added, but declined to give a figure.

The military deployed four army and navy platoons.

This week’s clashes were the third to rock Batam in the past two years. In April last year, workers at a shipbuilder clashed with security personnel after allegedly racist remarks made by expatriate supervisors. And two months ago, a riot by workers broke out at another shipyard.

Batam, the capital of the Riau Islands, is one of Indonesia’s main destinations for foreign investment, housing 26 industrial estates with more than 4,000 companies employing almost 300,000 workers. It is also home to many firms based in Singapore, just a 45-minute ferry ride away.

Yesterday, much of the island’s administrative center was cordoned off. Police officers could be seen at virtually every main intersection, a resident told Elshinta radio, while the largest shopping center, Batam Mega Mall, was closed, as were a number of petrol stations and most big shops.

Many businesses, mainly labour-intensive manufacturing industries, suspended their operations for fear of more protests.

Government offices also kept their doors shut.

Police have arrested 27 workers over the demonstrations. One of them is accused of instigating the violent protest, while another was arrested after he was caught throwing stones at the mayor’s office, Indonesian National Police spokesman Saud Usman Nasution told a media briefing in Jakarta yesterday.

Workers are demanding a rise in the municipal minimum wage from 1.18 million rupiah (S$168) a month to 1.76 million rupiah. The minimum wage in Batam is lower than that in Jakarta, Bekasi, Surabaya and many other Indonesian municipalities.

But Batam Mayor Ahmad Dahlan rejected the demand, saying the figure was too high. “We cannot meet the demanded monthly wage hike to 1.76 million rupiah,” he said, adding that he would leave the decision to the Riau Islands governor.

Reprinted courtesy of Straits Times Indonesia. To subscribe to Straits Times Indonesia and/or the Jakarta Globe call 021 2553 5055.