Move comes as police set up checkpoints across Jakarta and deploy armoured vehicles to Parliament.
Some Indonesian students and civil society groups have cancelled protests in Jakarta, after authorities ramped up security in the country’s capital, following a week of deadly protests over lawmakers’ pay.
An umbrella group that represents students cited “impossible conditions” for their decision to call off Monday’s protests, while the Alliance of Indonesian Women said it was to avoid any crackdown by the authorities.
The protests began a week ago and have spread nationwide, escalating in size and intensity after a police vehicle hit and killed a motorcycle taxi driver on Thursday night.
Eight people have died in the protests, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said on Monday.
The rallies have forced President Prabowo Subianto to make a U-turn over the measures. He said on Sunday that political parties had agreed to cut lawmakers’ benefits, but also ordered the military and police to act against rioters and looters after homes of political party members and state buildings were ransacked or set ablaze.
Police set up checkpoints across the capital, Jakarta, on Monday, and a police spokesman told broadcaster Kompas TV that officers were also patrolling the city to “protect” citizens and give a sense of security.
Police had also deployed a convoy of armoured cars and motorbikes to Parliament late on Sunday in a show of force as they attempted to warn off protesters.
The Alliance of Indonesian Women, a coalition of women-led civil society groups, said on Sunday that it had delayed planned protests at the Parliament to prevent violence by the authorities.
“The delay is done to avoid increased violent escalation by authorities … the delay takes place until the situations calm down,” the group said in an Instagram post.
Student groups also delayed a protest on Monday, with one umbrella group saying the decision was “due to very impossible conditions”.
Student groups in the West Java town of Purwakarta and the city of Yogyakarta, however, planned demonstrations on Monday, according to their Instagram accounts, although it was not immediately clear whether the rallies would take place.
The crisis has forced Prabowo to cancel a planned trip to China this week for a military parade commemorating the end of World War II.
His close ally, Minister of Defence Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, warned on Sunday that the military and the police would take “firm action” against “rioters and looters”, after the finance minister’s house was pillaged.
At least three people were killed after a fire on Friday started by protesters at a council building in the eastern city of Makassar.
Another victim died in Makassar on Friday after he was beaten by a mob on suspicion that he was an intelligence officer, local disaster agency official Muhammad Fadli Tahar told the AFP news agency on Sunday.
In Yogyakarta, the Amikom Yogyakarta University confirmed the death of its student, Rheza Sendy Pratama, in protests, but the circumstances around his death remain unclear.
In anticipation of further unrest, TikTok on Saturday temporarily suspended its live feature for “a few days” in Indonesia, where it has more than 100 million users.
