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JAKARTA: Indonesians took to the streets in angry protests over the soaring cost of food and a planned fuel price hike on Wednesday as economic concerns overshadowed the 10th anniversary of Suharto's fall.
Several demonstrations were under way across the country against the government's plans to raise the subsidised price of fuel by as much as 30 percent to protect the budget from record world oil prices.
Indonesia has seen almost daily protests against the fuel price plans and the rising cost of food in recent weeks, but tensions were higher on Wednesday on the 10th anniversary of the collapse of the Suharto regime.
The former dictator, who died in January, resigned amid mass protests triggered by a fuel price rise, ending 32 years of his so-called "New Order" military-led rule.
His iron rule brought economic progress and stability, but at the expense of democracy and human rights.
The Jakarta Post, one of only a few newspapers to publish an editorial on Suharto, said the government had failed to lift Indonesia's economy from the chaos caused by the political turmoil and the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
But the English-language daily said democracy had flourished in Indonesia despite the gloomy economic picture.
"Ten years have passed. Suharto died in January. We are still unable to recover from the economic disaster. But we need to remember that we deserve to take pride in our democracy," it said.
It was an "amazing achievement that Indonesia has been able to transform itself after five decades of dictatorship into the world's third-largest democracy after India and the United States," it said.
But it said corruption, violence, intolerance, weak law enforcement and unemployment continued to undermine democracy and governance in the world's most populous Muslim country.
"When the people's living conditions continue to get worse, more and more people will ask, 'is democracy a blessing or a curse?'" it said.
Suharto died without facing justice over billions of dollars he allegedly stole from government coffers during his 32-year rule, or for widespread human rights violations committed by his generals.
The government, facing elections next year, has said it must slash fuel subsidies by raising the price of fuel after crude oil prices crashed through a series of all-time highs.
But analysts have warned that this will add to the economic pain already being felt by poor Indonesians facing soaring food prices.
- AFP/so
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