President Prabowo Subianto of Indonesia said on Sunday that the country’s House of Representatives had agreed to some policy changes that protesters across the country had been demanding over a week of demonstrations.
Thousands of protesters in several major Indonesian cities have been rallying since Monday in response to the country’s increasing cost of living and rising unemployment rate. Demonstrators demanded that the government cancel the high monthly housing allowances that lawmakers received, which many in the country see as lavish.
In a news conference on Sunday, Mr. Prabowo acknowledged “the genuine aspirations of the public” and announced that the House of Representatives would cut allowances for national lawmakers. He also said it would put a moratorium on expensive overseas trips.
Mr. Prabowo did not specify if he was referring to the allowances for housing, which are just one of several stipends that lawmakers get. And he did not offer any guarantees that his government would follow through. But the concessions may assuage some protesters’ grievances.
Mr. Prabowo, a former general who was discharged from the military in 1998 for his involvement in the abduction and torture of pro-democracy activists under the rule of the dictator Suharto, initially responded to the recent protests by directing the Indonesian military and police “to take firm action” when it came to “anarchic actions,” according to Indonesia’s national police chief, Listyo Sigit Prabowo.
In the president’s speech on Sunday, he echoed those comments, saying “we cannot deny that signs of extrajudicial, even unlawful, actions are beginning to emerge, some even leading to treason and terrorism.”
Mr. Prabowo’s announcement came after rioters on Sunday directed their rage at the homes of lawmakers and government officials, ransacking, vandalizing and looting the properties.
The protests, which have left at least five dead and hundreds injured, are the worst crisis for the country since Mr. Prabowo took office almost a year ago. The demonstrations were initially driven by discontent over economic hardship but morphed into a denunciation of police brutality after a motorcycle taxi driver was killed at a protest on Thursday.
That killing set off a wave of violent protests that has spread across several Indonesian cities. Police officers in riot gear have fired tear gas at protesters in the capital, Jakarta, as demonstrators burned cars and set police outposts on fire.
Early Sunday, hundreds of people stormed the home of Indonesia’s finance minister, Sri Mulyani, in the city of South Tangerang. Witnesses said the crowd forced their way into the house and carried away valuables, local news media reported. Ms. Sri was not there when the looters arrived.
It was one of several episodes of looting that intensified over the weekend. On Saturday, protesters got into a house belonging to a senior lawmaker of the National Democratic Party in Jakarta, destroying his car and carting off what appeared to be luxury bags, watches, a television, fitness equipment and even his bathtub, according to videos posted on social media. The lawmaker, Ahmad Sahroni, had earlier said that people who called for the dissolution of Parliament were “the dumbest people in the world,” and he later called the protesters thugs.
Mr. Prabowo said the heads of various political parties told him that they would expel the lawmakers who had mocked the protesters.
Until recently, Indonesia, which is the world’s fourth-largest nation with a population of 284 million, had been one of Southeast Asia’s most stable economies. The public has grown increasingly frustrated with rising prices and worsening unemployment, and Mr. Prabowo’s decision to cut budgets to fund his flagship programs.
The protesters were especially infuriated by the monthly housing allowances for lawmakers, which were almost 10 times what a minimum-wage worker in Jakarta could make in the same time.
For some Indonesians, the sight of the spreading protests brought back jarring memories of the nationwide civil unrest that rocked the country in 1998, eventually leading to the resignation of Suharto, who was Mr. Prabowo’s father-in-law.
With the recent demonstrations, protesters were targeting “politicians who lack empathy,” said Reni Suwarso, a political science lecturer at the University of Indonesia.
“This is the impact when democracy and direct elections only benefit the political elites,” Ms. Reni said.
Yoes C. Kenawas, a researcher at Atma Jaya Catholic University, said the protests reached a new intensity after the death of Affan Kurniawan, a 21-year-old motorcycle taxi driver who was mowed down by a police vehicle on Thursday night in Jakarta.
Mr. Affan worked for a ride-hailing company called Gojek, whose tens of thousands of drivers are ubiquitous in Indonesia. Nearly all Indonesians are familiar with Gojek riders, who deliver their orders or take them places.
That is why, Mr. Yoes said, Mr. Affan’s death struck an especially sensitive nerve. The young taxi driver represented an Indonesian Everyman, working in a job that was often a last resort and provided barely enough to make ends meet.
In a sign of the protests’ severity, Mr. Prabowo on Saturday canceled his plans to attend a landmark security conference in China where more than 20 of the world’s top leaders are convening this weekend. He may also skip the annual General Assembly at the United Nations in September, said Prasetyo Hadi, a spokesman for the president.
Muktita Suhartono reports on Thailand and Indonesia. She is based in Bangkok.
Sui-Lee Wee is the Southeast Asia bureau chief for The Times, overseeing coverage of 11 countries in the region.
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