Word: suharto
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Efforts to get tough on terrorism are complicated by the government's desire to keep its distance from the military and security services, which were notoriously abusive under longtime dictator Suharto. A Western diplomat in Jakarta says if Megawati were to hand law-enforcement authorities too much power, "moderates of all stripes would make common cause against her out of fear that it marked the beginning of a return to the draconian methods of the Suharto days." Says Wolfowitz: "Americans need to understand we're dealing with a country that only recently became free after 50 years of dictatorship. Indonesians...
...assess the damage of the terrorism that has slammed into their homeland, some fear their cost ultimately could be far greater than the toll in America?that it could turn Indonesia, the world's fourth most-populous country, into a failed state. Just four years after the dictator Suharto was run out of office, the sprawling archipelago is struggling to emerge as a stable democracy. It hosts a full complement of developing-country ills: endemic corruption, erratic courts, reform-resistant corporations, crippling national debt, a barely functioning banking sector and falling investment. Psychological shock waves surging outward from Kuta Beach...
...turn over management of an oil field in Sumatra to a joint venture between a local government and Pertamina, the country's big domestic producer. Caltex ran the field for 30 years, but when its production contract expired, the company was unable to get a standard extension. Under Suharto, Jakarta controlled the country's natural resource industries. But now, power is devolving to the provinces and local politicians want a cut of the wealth. The government in Riau, the province where the field is located, demanded it get a stake in the field; it formed a joint venture with Pertamina...
...same time, the number of unions has exploded, from one, carefully controlled union under Suharto, to 64 national unions, 247 regional ones, and at least 10,000 local workplace unions. Strikes, often violent, are on the rise. Last week, the Korean manager of a computer-case manufacturer was reportedly trapped in his office by 500 of his employees after he announced the company would close. The workers vowed not to let him leave until he promised to give them sufficient severance...
...proteges - a strategic choice challenged by increasingly influential Islamist parties. But from the point of view of those seeking efficient curbing of Indonesian extremism, the laxity shown by Megawati until now may be a symptom of the often volatile diffusion of power in Jakarta that began in 1998 with Suharto's ouster, when a nation deeply riven by political, social and ethnic divisions began moving awkwardly towards democracy. Now, as in Pakistan, terrorism, and the fight against it in Indonesia, may slow that transition...