Indonesian MPs to review of fuel price hike

JAKARTA: Indonesia's parliament has voted to review the government's fuel price hike after 21 people were injured in violent student-led protests, officials and police said Wednesday.

MPs voted late Tuesday to review the 30-per cent price rises announced despite angry opposition in May as the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono acted to rein in crippling subsidy bills, officials said.

Presidential spokesman Andi Mallarangeng said ministers had been ordered to prepare a strong defence of the fuel price policy as the administration comes under mounting pressure over rising inflation ahead of elections next year.

The unpopular price hikes have calmed investors' nerves over the state of the country's budget deficit, but they have fuelled unrest in Southeast Asia's largest economy which is already reeling from higher food prices.

Riot police fired water cannons to break up the violent demonstration by about 1,000 stone-throwing protesters who threw Molotov cocktails, smashed police cars and tried to break down the gates of parliament on Tuesday.

"Some sixteen protesters were arrested during yesterday's demonstrations and they are under police investigation," police spokesman Abu Bakar Nataprawira said.

He said the student organisations which organised the rally had been infiltrated by "another group," a possible reference to opposition political agitators whom the government accuses of stoking street violence.