In Jakarta
HUNDREDS of Indonesians - mostly university students and members of Islamic religious groups - have been staging protests against Israel's aggression towards Gaza for the past week.
On Friday, it was the turn of thousands from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), an up-and-coming Islamic political party that pundits will be watching closely in the April legislative election.
The party, which has cleverly branded itself as a moderate Islamic party championing anti-corruption and good governance, took slightly over 7 per cent or 8.3 million votes in the 2004 polls. Some analysts have predicted that they could double this result this time round.
While the plight of Palestinians was the focus on Friday, the gathering smacked of a show of strength by the party in their stronghold, which consists of Jakarta and its surrounding cities.
Aptly, the protest began brewing in an area considered to be the heart of downtown Jakarta, amidst hotels, upmarket malls and offices.
Traffic crawled to a snail's pace for close to 2 hours at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle.
According to the Jakarta Post online, the protest was organised by a PKS branch from Bekasi, a satellite city east of Jakarta. A spokesman named Chaider (he uses a one word name) had said on Thursday that the organisers were "urging everyone to join in a long march to pressure the US government to take firm action to halt the Israeli air raids against Hamas in the Gaza strip."
Usually bustling with honking cars and motorbikes at lunchtime, the streets around the traffic circle had been eerily quiet in the morning.
But by 1pm, they were clogged up by supporters - dressed in party T-shirts and holding the white, yellow and black party flag - and policemen sent there to maintain the peace. The police later estimated that "tens of thousands" of protesters showed up.
A few young men perched on the back of a blue pick-up truck, using a loudhailer to rally sympathy for the more than 400 people who have been killed in Gaza so far. As their voices bounced off the walls of the buildings, women in headscarfs clutched the hands of young children and shuffled along the hot tarmac enmasse.
Around them, the atmosphere seemed festive, as if families were enjoying a day out with their children before the start of the school term next week.
Some sat on groundsheets under blue skies, chatting and tucking into their lunches of nasi rames (rice with different dishes) and gado-gado. Street vendors were all around, hawking bottled water and Wall's ice-cream, prepaid mobile phone cards, and PKS paraphernalia like badges.
Yet others were taking the opportunity to promote the party's candidate for president, in the July presidential elections.
They wore black T-shirts that said "HNW for President", referring to former party chairman and current leader of Indonesia's constitutional assembly Hidayat Nur Wahid
But as the afternoon unfolded, weary faces - of Indonesians wanting to get on with their lives - began to appear in the crowd.
One mall closed off its exits and entrances temporarily, with shoppers either stuck in the malls or on the sidewalk. Taxi drivers circled the small streets in the area, unwilling to leave the area and get caught up in the gridlock. And hundreds of commuters in Trans-Jakarta buses - buses that ply the main arteries of the city and have their own bus lanes to beat the city's horrible traffic congestion - were left stuck onboard, watching as the bus lane filled up with around 10 buses.
Things cleared up after 3pm when the supporters finally left the area for the United States embassy, a 30-minute walk away. They ended up staging a demonstration outside.
For them, Friday afternoon turned out to be time well-spent for their multiple agendas to be played out.
A coordinator from the party, Tubagus Arif, said in a statement to media later that the aim of the protest was to show solidarity with the Palestinians facing "Israeli atrocities".
But for those in Jakarta unknowingly caught up in the crush of people and the traffic snarl, Friday afternoon turned out to be not so pleasant after all.