We warned you yesterday about the massive public transport driver protest against ride-hailing services like Uber and GrabCar that would be taking place today, but we never thought that it would get this crazy.
Images of the protests from Jakarta’s main streets are trending on social media. From what they show, it looks like the protest may be on the verge of erupting into a full blown riot.
One particularly unsettling video has gone viral in the past few hours. Netizens say that it shows a bunch of taxi drivers, mostly from the Blue Bird company, stepping on and smashing two other Blue Bird taxis whose drivers didn’t want to get involved in the protest.
Here is the incident from another angle, which also thankfully shows that the attackers didn’t hurt the driver whose taxi they smashed:
Detik confirmed that the protesting drivers were targeting the two Blue Bird taxis because they were transporting passengers at the time.
In a separate scene, the very beginning of this video shows what looks like an Express taxi driver being forced out of his car by other drivers, presumably because he didn’t want to join the protest as well.
CNN Indonesia predicts that there could be up to 10,000 protesting public transport drivers spread out throughout government offices in Central Jakarta today. 6,000 police officers have been deployed to make sure things don’t get any more chaotic than they already are.
The protest is expected to go on until 5:30pm today, so expect extended traffic jams throughout Central Jakarta all day today. And just to give you an idea of what the macet’s been like this morning:
