JAKARTA - BEM UI called students to gather for an Aug. 18 action aimed at Bundaran HI in Central Jakarta, a day after Indonesia marked Independence Day, warning that jobs remain scarce and setting out eight demands to the government.

One of the group’s formal demands calls on the government to lower basic-goods and fuel prices. BEM UI chair Yatalathof Ma’shum Imawan said prosperity becomes illusory when jobs are scarce and explicitly called on workers, alongside farmers, teachers and traders, to join the “Merebut Kemerdekaan” action.

Those concerns come against a labour market in which 148.19 million people were working in May, according to Statistics Indonesia. About 87.88 million, or 59.3%, were in informal employment, compared with roughly 60.31 million in formal work. The unemployment rate stood at 4.65%, while the average employee wage was Rp3.39 million a month.

Layoffs add another pressure point. Manpower Ministry data recorded 43,805 workers affected by layoffs from January through July who were registered as participants in the Job Loss Guarantee, or JKP, programme. West Java had the largest recorded number, at 8,830 workers.

The jobs warning accompanies a broader eight-point platform for Tuesday’s action. Beyond its demand for lower basic-goods and fuel prices, BEM UI is demanding an end to what it describes as state “colonisation” of the people, an end to corruption, collusion and nepotism, and what it calls genuine agrarian reform.

Its remaining demands include a total review of National Strategic Projects and an end to the Free Nutritious Meals programme, or MBG, and Red-and-White Village Cooperatives.

The group also wants an end to centralisation and cuts to regional transfers, the restoration of regional autonomy, national-disaster status and faster recovery for affected areas in Sumatra and Flores, and an end to repression and TNI-Polri intervention in civilian space, as well as the dissolution of Yon TP.

The MBG demand is not new. BEM UI and allied student groups also called for the programme and the village cooperatives to be halted during a June protest at Bundaran HI, when students demonstrated over fuel prices, living costs and what they described as wasteful state spending.

BEM UI had called participants to gather at FISIP UI in Depok before moving toward Bundaran HI for the Aug. 18 action.

The mobilisation also comes amid lingering anxiety over a possible repeat of last August’s unrest. Tall metal fences appeared outside several malls, offices and state-owned bank buildings in recent weeks, including Kota Kasablanka, Blok M Plaza and FX Sudirman, fuelling online speculation that businesses were preparing for demonstrations.

Some building operators disputed that interpretation. Jakarta Governor Pramono Anung urged businesses and the public not to overreact, while police said the capital remained safe and conducive and were monitoring misleading information and provocative content online.