Word: suhartos
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...hope he will spread their dream of Islamic ascendancy for Indonesia. Yet he is a highly educated scientist and dedicated believer in the power of technology. He studied aeronautical engineering in Germany and worked his way up to a vice presidency at the aircraft makers Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm before Suharto personally called him home in 1974 to help Indonesia establish an industrial base. For 20 years he served as Minister of Research and Technology, developing a string of "strategic industries" to build airplanes, steel mills, cars and ships in Indonesia...
...groups have fed off contracts from the state enterprises Habibie oversaw as Technology Minister, says sociologist George Aditjondro of the University of Newcastle in Australia. That does not bode well for a clean government under a Habibie presidency. "The Habibie-family companies are so deeply involved with the Suharto-family companies," says Aditjondro, that Habibie naturally "will try to protect Suharto and his family from impeachment...
...effort to reassure the moneymen and political lenders on whom Indonesia's economic revival depends, Habibie announced a new "reform and development" Cabinet that conspicuously dropped the most prominent of Suharto's cronies, and pledged to develop a government "free of corruption, collusion and nepotism." Few of Habibie's critics were impressed. Amien Rais, who leads the 28 million-member Muhammadiyah Muslim organization and has emerged as one of the strongest opposition figures in the past two weeks, said he would "neither endorse nor oppose" the new Cabinet but doubted it would last the full term...
Foreign investors are worried that Habibie may allow Muslim activists a greater role in society than they were permitted under Suharto. Unsettling signs appeared the day after Habibie's swearing in, when hundreds of Muslim protesters forced their way into Parliament to confront students still demonstrating for greater democratic reforms. They advanced shouting, "Muslims must support Habibie!" and "Religion and politics are one and the same!" The security forces had to intervene to prevent a serious riot from breaking...
...that's a big if--Habibie's new Cabinet is able to make headway in restoring the economy, his presidency may defy expectations and last its full term, some analysts say. Even so, Indonesia will change in ways that were impossible under Suharto's centralized control. The press has thrown off self-censorship, and the next step could be the legitimization of multiparty politics to accommodate the newfound sense of "people power." John Sidel, a lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, predicts, "You will see a great diversity in government, and all these different groups...