Word: suharto
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Indonesians sometimes view their political power struggles as a kind of wayang, the traditional all-night puppet show in which the villains die at dawn. For four main players in President Suharto's government, dawn finally came last week. All were generals, and two of them-Ali Murtopo and Sudjono Humardani-were members of the hated Aspri, the influential kitchen cabinet. One non-Aspri was General Sutomo Yuwono, head of the internal intelligence agency. The other was General Sumitro, boss of the security force Kopkamtib. Suharto stripped him of the Kopkamtib command and took personal charge of the secret...
...Mere Puppets. Suharto's moves cut short political maneuvering by two dangerous rivals who had helped him topple former Dictator Sukarno in 1966. Roly-poly Sumitro, a golfing partner ("My stomach is my handicap") of the President, had sought to build up a following with students. When he was reported as favoring "new national leadership," Sumitro immediately denied that he had ever thought of calling for Suharto's replacement. But to political observers it looked like a slip 'twixt cup and coup. After last month's student riots during Japanese Premier Kakuei Tanaka's visit...
...gathering power into his own hands, Suharto temporarily resolved several of his political woes. His disbanding of the Aspri was a crowd-pleasing response to student protests that his aides were corrupt. But the villains of Suharto's wayang are not mere puppets. Each of the four wily generals is potentially a powerful political figure. They may now try to write a different scenario for the next Indonesian puppet show...
Indonesia's strongest card is its rapidly developing petroleum industry. The oil crisis has enabled Suharto to boost the price of the daily output of 1.4 million bbl. from $4 to $10.80 per bbl. in the past year. The oilfields are owned by the state oil company, Pertamina, which estimates that it will have a daily output of 2 million bbl. by 1975. The problem is that the nation's new-found oil riches have contributed to the conspicuous consumption of the Indonesian rich (who make up only 3% of the population) but have hardly touched the lives...
...recent rioting in Jakarta was not as serious as the student demonstrations earlier this year in Thailand and South Korea. But it showed that a student protest could explode within one hour into a riot of 100,000 people. That fact was not lost on Suharto's government. The army's own rebellion against Sukarno in 1965 was also preceded by widespread student rioting in the streets of Jakarta...