Uneasy Calm Settles Over Jakarta

Budi Lesmana steered his Honda motorcycle through the riot-damaged streets of Jakarta on Saturday, passing burned-out department stores and looted shops, and said to a passenger behind him: “I am ashamed; truly ashamed to be an Indonesian.”

But at least, after four days of rioting that left about 500 dead, the capital was finally quiet. Although offices and stores remained closed and the military presence was heavy, buses and pedestrians returned to the streets in limited numbers and officials began calculating the toll from Jakarta’s worst violence in recent decades.

The toll was, everyone agreed, immeasurable. Foreigners were pouring out of Indonesia on chartered and commercial flights, including about 1,600 U.S. citizens who evacuated Saturday. General Motors closed down production of its Opel Blazers. Federal Express and Citibank locked theirs doors and sent expatriate staff members to Singapore. Toyota and Mitsubishi halted operations.

Jakarta’s governor, Sutiyoso, declared that the capital was safe and urged expatriates to stay. His call fell on deaf ears.

“The police have no longer been able to provide protection,” U.S. Ambassador J. Stapleton Roy said, adding that Americans had encountered dangerous situations, even in their homes.

The riots, sparked by an increase in fuel prices, the shooting deaths Tuesday of six students and deep-seated dissatisfaction with President Suharto’s 32-year rule, will have devastating effects on Indonesia’s hoped-for economic recovery, financial experts said. The unrest will retard foreign investment, the revival of the tourism industry and implementation of the International Monetary Fund’s $43-billion bailout package, they said. That could lead to more unemployment, more poverty and more potentially violent public anger.

With security concerns temporarily lessened, the focus shifted to a series of high-level meetings that Suharto was holding in his modest Cendana Street home--notable, one Western ambassador said, primarily for its tasteless interior decorations. Suharto scrambled to regain his eroding power base by meeting two opposition demands: rolling back the increase in fuel prices and saying he would shuffle his unpopular Cabinet, appointed only two months ago.

But Suharto would hear no talk about resigning, an aide said, even though the president fueled speculation earlier this week when he said he would step aside and “become a sage” if he were no longer trusted. Information Minister Alwi Dahlan said that Suharto’s remark had been “misinterpreted by many sides” and that he never meant to imply that stepping aside meant stepping aside.

Asman Budisantosa, head of the University of Indonesia, where students have held anti-Suharto demonstrations almost daily for three months, met with the 76-year-old president Saturday. Budisantosa said he politely broached the subject of succession.

“He [Suharto] replied very sweetly,” Budisantosa told reporters. “He said, as head of state, he was carrying out his responsibilities.” Those duties, according to the 1945 constitution, include completing his term of office, which ends in 2003.

Fifteen retired generals joined the growing chorus calling for the end of Suharto’s reign.

Home Affairs Minister Hartono said such critics were under Communist influence--resurrecting a bogyman that government officials often evoke in moments of public strife--and warned that anyone defaming Suharto’s honor would be punished. It is against the law in Indonesia to insult the president or belittle the government.

Suharto has not been seen in public or made any public statement since cutting short a trip to Cairo and returning to Jakarta on Friday. Political analysts found it peculiar that in one of Indonesia’s gravest hours, the president would do nothing to calm his people or lay out for them a plan of action to deal with the crisis.

“I’m afraid it just shows how out of touch he is,” an Indonesian human rights activist said. He said Indonesians were surprised that Suharto had flown off to Egypt on a weeklong official trip just as his seething country was about to explode.

Substantial violence, although not as intense as in Jakarta, also racked other big cities in recent days. Major riots broke out after Friday prayers in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city; 50 looters died when they were trapped in a department store fire in Tangerang, 25 miles west of Jakarta; luxury homes were burned in Bandar Lampung; and shops, hotels and car showrooms were looted in Solo.