A Longtime Challenger

There is now a small chorus in Indonesia calling for President Suharto to end his more than three decades of rule. But in 1993, when Amien Rais first urged the president to prepare to step down, his was a lonely voice.

“I was the only one then,” said Rais, who received his doctorate in political science from the University of Chicago. “Now I have a moral and intellectual obligation to launch the issue again.”

Rais is chairman of the 28-million-member Muhammadiyah, the country’s second-largest Muslim group. That popular support has given him a bit of protection from the president’s wrath, but he tries not to squander it. “I am always careful not to violate the constitution,” he said. “I have avoided a head-on collision with Suharto. I stepped down from [a controversial organization of Islamic intellectuals] when he asked me to. And I have survived.”

But now may be the time to make a move, he said. “The unemployment is unbelievable. Purchasing power is down, inflation is up, and I think the economic frustration will spill over into political frustration. We are sitting on a volcano. There could be an explosion.”

Political analysts describe Rais as a nationalistic Muslim who would like to make the government less liberal and secular and who would pack the Cabinet with Islamists to make it more representative of Indonesia’s Islamic population. But he says that with his academic background, political astuteness and Islamic support, he can lead the country in Suharto’s place.