Protesters in Indonesia Focus Rage on Politicians, Ransacking Their Homes

Rioters in Indonesia ransacked, vandalized and looted the homes of lawmakers and the country’s finance minister on Sunday, a week after daily demonstrations began as a rejection of government policies and police brutality.

The protests, which have left at least five dead and hundreds injured, are the worst crisis for the country since President Prabowo Subianto took office almost a year ago. The demonstrations were initially driven by discontent over rising unemployment and inflation 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, as demonstrators burned cars and torched police outposts.

In the early hours of 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, carrying away valuables, local 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 stormed 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.

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 slash budgets to fund his flagship programs.

One of the catalysts of the protests was a decision to give lawmakers monthly housing allowances that were almost 10 times what a worker could make at the minimum wage in Jakarta, the capital.

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.

Mr. Prabowo has given a clear directive to the Indonesian military and the police “to take firm action in accordance with the law” when it comes to “anarchic actions,” Indonesia’s national police chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo, who is not related to the president, said on Saturday.

Mr. Prabowo’s background has inflamed fears that the army could be deployed to mount a crackdown. The president, a former general, 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, who was his father-in-law.