Word: suharto
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JAKARTA: Charred bodies, still clutching looted televisions. Police firing into crowds of student protesters. The death toll over 200 and rising: This is President Suharto's Indonesia; and no one, even his former allies, seems to want him in charge anymore...
...rioting alone won't topple Suharto. But it's making the military nervous. And the military doesn't like being nervous. "The army is really starting to lean on Suharto to step aside into a figurehead position," says TIME correspondent Terry McCarthy, reporting from Jakarta. "It could happen soon...
...military faces the same "billion-dollar question" as they have for 32 years now, says McCarthy: If not Suharto, who? "There's no answer right now," he says. "But whoever it is will need the approval of the military. They're the ones that determine the succession of power." They might start by restoring the peace...
...through Jakarta?s burning streets, empty except for implacable rioters; the value of the currency plummets with the rising death toll, foreign diplomats evacuate their families, and the aging dictator talks about getting ?closer to God.? Indonesians could be forgiven for thinking the impossible had become the inevitable -- that Suharto was about...
...TIME correspondent William Dowell points out that there is no easy resolution in Indonesia: While the army recognizes the need to replace Suharto, until an obvious successor emerges they?re forced to keep him in power. Dowell believes there will be no signs of a coup against Suharto until it?s a fait accompli: ?Anyone who telegraphs their intentions would be quickly eliminated, so it's not likely that there'll be any signs of a move against Suharto until it?s over.? At the same time, Dowell warns, ?Suharto is a brilliant politician and has all the instincts...