Word: suhartos
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...decisions have to be negotiated among them," says TIME U.N. correspondent William Dowell. Jakarta has effectively admitted that it's lost control of at least some of its own forces in East Timor. The New York Times reports that General Prabowo Subianto, a close ally of the former dictator Suharto and a rival to current military leader General Wiranto, wields considerable influence among officers on the island. That, together with rising nationalist sentiment against international intervention and the Indonesian government that authorized it - as well as the specter of war crimes tribunals shadowing those officers who helped organize the militias...
...President Habibie's aides have also acknowledged that he is under intense internal pressure from forces opposed to letting go of East Timor. Those range from the former dictator Suharto and opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri to the country's all-powerful military. The military has extensive economic interests in East Timor, and the officer corps fears that allowing the territory to break away will only encourage secessionist movements across the 13,000 ethnically diverse islands that make up Indonesia...
...party (which polled 22 percent) and a plethora of smaller parties. Thursday?s announcement follows indications that the military may have offered to back her in November?s electoral assembly, in exchange for making armed forces commander General Wiranto her vice president. Despite its traditional relationship with the dictator Suharto and Golkar, the military is concerned that denying Megawati the presidency would provoke widespread instability. Thousands of her supporters last week demand that she be elected president by signing petitions in their own blood...
...military?s concern to put an end to last year?s riots that led General Wiranto to gently nudge Suharto out of power and to commit the country to elections. But Suharto?s handpicked heir, President B.J. Habibie, and his Golkar party potentially have sufficient support in the electoral assembly -- due to set-asides for the military and regional representatives -- to block Megawati?s accession. Despite her call for Suharto to be prosecuted for abuses of power, there?s unlikely to be an accord on her taking the presidency unless she gives some guarantee of immunity to the masters...
...from certain to inherit the spoils. A complex electoral process, which includes significant votes for the military and appointees of the provinces, means that despite the vote, the next president will be decided in backroom deals. "Many fear that the complicated mechanics of electing a president, designed by Suharto to minimize direct public participation, will be used to nullify Megawati?s electoral victory," says TIME Asia correspondent Anthony Spaeth. And that, of course, would leave Megawati?s supporters, who played the central role in the street protests that dispensed with the dictator, profoundly dissatisfied. Last week Megawati supporters all over...