Suharto Says He’ll Call Elections, Step Aside

Amid calls from his major civilian allies to “wisely step down,” President Suharto today said he will relinquish power after reshuffling his Cabinet and holding general elections. He did not say when that would occur.

In a national address, the beleaguered 76-year-old Indonesian leader said he will call new parliamentary elections “as soon as possible,” at which time he would declare himself “not available” to serve as president.

“I will not be prepared to be elected any more,” he said.

Under Indonesia’s political system, an assembly made up of the parliament and government appointees elects the president.

If Suharto does step down, that move would mean that Asia’s longest-serving leader will not finish his full term, which was to have ended in 2003.

The call Monday for his resignation after months of economic and political turmoil came from his close friend, Harmoko, the speaker of parliament and head of Suharto’s powerful Golkar party. He urged the nation to be calm so the process could be carried out constitutionally.

As third in the national hierarchy behind the president and vice president, Harmoko has the power to call an emergency session of the 500-member People’s Consultative Assembly, which reelected Suharto to a seventh five-year term in March, and the authority to revoke its mandate. The convening of an emergency session has been a key demand of protesting students agitating for political reform.

Harmoko issued his statement after meeting with key assembly leaders, all longtime Suharto loyalists, and receiving a consensus to present Suharto with their demand today. The assembly has been a rubber stamp for the president’s orders, and its decision to forsake Suharto--who has ruled longer than any head of state except Cuba’s Fidel Castro--shocked and delighted protesters who have risked their lives during nearly three months of protests.

“This came sooner than we expected,” said Wimar Witoelar, a leading government critic. “It is a huge step forward, but we’re not calling the end of the game yet. You can’t overestimate Suharto’s capability to cling to power.”

Suharto, who had been isolated in his house for four days, not even commenting on last week’s riots in Jakarta that claimed 500 lives, had not until today publicly reacted to the loss of his last bastion of civilian support. If he does choose to try to hang on, it appears he could do so only with the help of the 465,000-member armed forces, Indonesia’s most powerful national institution.

But in today’s speech, Suharto seemed to indicate that would not be his plan of action. “Let me not stand in the way of the desires of our people,” he said.

Gen. Wiranto, chief of the armed forces, has repeatedly said that any action by the army would be carried out within the framework of the 1945 constitution. He told a news conference Monday night that Harmoko’s statement represented a “personal opinion” and that such matters must be decided by the entire parliament. Analysts were uncertain whether his comments represented confirmation of his support for the constitutional process or a warning to anti-Suharto forces, who had been planning nationwide demonstrations Wednesday.

But since Harmoko would be acting legally if he called the assembly into session, the army--if it intends to abide by the constitution--would be bound to support the assembly’s decision.

Wiranto, a former Suharto aide, is popular with his troops and respected by Western diplomats as a professional soldier. These envoys, however, did not discount the possibility that rogue generals, perhaps including Suharto’s son-in-law, Lt. Gen. Prabowo Soemitro Subianto, might come to the president’s defense.

Any transition of power would take time to work out. Indonesian political sources said Monday that Suharto had already been in touch with Harmoko and wanted some assurances: that his vice president, B.J. Habibie, would replace him, that the transfer of power would be constitutional, and that his blueprint for economic development would not be abandoned.

After Suharto’s comments today, it was unclear whether he expected that Habibie would be successor.

Before Harmoko issued his statement, thousands of students rode through Jakarta in buses, cheered by crowds and saluted by some soldiers. They converged on the domed parliament building, and troops in full battle gear made no attempt to interfere as they milled about the grounds, chanting for Suharto’s resignation.

The students were joined by diverse elements of society. Retired generals, university professors, religious leaders all had the same message: Indonesia’s paralyzed economy cannot be healed without political reform, and political reform cannot come until Suharto aborts the 32-year reign during which his family has accumulated a fortune estimated at $40 billion.

Dennis de Tray, director of the World Bank office here, said the recent unrest has changed the playing field in Indonesia and that foreign donors “will clearly have to reassess the reform package” under which the International Monetary Fund promised Indonesia $43 billion.

Also Monday, the minister of tourism, Abdul Latief, announced that he was resigning “to spend more time with my children.” Though Latief is not a powerful figure, his resignation is the first known crack in the 36-member Cabinet and reflected further erosion of Suharto’s shrinking base of support.

The growing anti-Suharto, pro-democracy movement has made the president’s five billionaire children virtual hostages. None are venturing from their homes on Cendana Street.

Suharto, a former general, came to power after engineering the political demise of Indonesia’s founding father, Sukarno, in the mid-1960s. He presided over two decades of impressive economic growth but apparently never understood that national development without political development creates a vacuum. Over the years, Suharto has silenced all opposition, and as Indonesia’s financial crisis deepened, he appeared to be increasingly out of touch.

He dithered for months before agreeing to implement the IMF bailout package, flew off to Cairo this month as his country was exploding in civil unrest and gave every indication of not paying the slightest attention to the students’ demands for political change.

Times wire services contributed to this report.