Suharto Resigns in Indonesia, Hands Power to Vice President

President Suharto resigned today, his 32-year rule brought down by a people’s power movement that toppled Asia’s longest-serving leader with dizzying speed.

Abandoned by the middle class he helped create and the armed forces he loved and trusted, Suharto went to his presidential office at 9 a.m. and, in a brief, televised ceremony, handed over power to his vice president, B. J. Habibie.

“I believe it has become difficult for me to continue the leadership of this country,” the 76-year-old Suharto said in a steady voice as he stood flanked by grim-faced generals, aides and Supreme Court justices. “Therefore, respecting the foundation of the 1945 constitution . . . I have decided to hereby declare that I will withdraw from the position of president of the republic of Indonesia, effective immediately.”

Suharto’s downfall was reminiscent of Ferdinand E. Marcos’ 1986 ouster in the Philippines, in which a largely peaceful and popular uprising brought down a once-invincible president who had stifled opposition, accumulated an immeasurable personal fortune and lost touch with his people, his country and a changing world.

Significantly, the armed forces chief, Gen. Wiranto, immediately pledged his troops’ loyalty to Habibie--a man not liked by the military--and said the army would take “great efforts” to protect the Suharto family and members of the outgoing parliament.

It seemed unlikely that Suharto will have to flee his country, as Marcos did the Philippines. But it was less clear whether Habibie will be a caretaker president or complete Suharto’s term, which expires in 2003. Most observers suspected he will be eased out of office by the generals in a manner that at least appears constitutional.

The speed of Suharto’s fall from power stunned Indonesia’s 200 million people, the world’s largest Muslim population. It came on a national religious holiday when stores were closed and streets empty, and the public response initially was muted. But students cheered, wept and prayed and Indonesians as a whole were certain to greet the news with relief and joy.

Day by day this week, one group after another had joined student demonstrators in calling for democracy and Suharto’s resignation. On Wednesday, his own Golkar party joined the rebellion, telling him to quit by Friday or face recall in a special session of the People’s Consultative Assembly.

The ultimatum--which came even as Secretary of State Madeleine Albright for the first time publicly called on the Indonesia leader to leave office to end his nation’s political and economic crisis--left Suharto with no options and no foundation of support.

The calling of an emergency session would have fulfilled the demand of the powerful military that a leadership change be constitutional. Indeed, the entire transition agreement was almost certainly engineered by the armed forces.

President Clinton welcomed Suharto’s decision and urged Indonesian leaders to move forward with “a peaceful process” backed by the people, Reuters reported. He said the United States stood ready to support Indonesia in an effort to create a stable democracy.

Early today in Asia, most of the region’s beleaguered stock markets rallied on news of Suharto’s resignation. The Malaysian market gained 2.4%, Japan’s market rose 1.5% and Singapore’s jumped 2.5%. The Indonesian market was closed for the holiday.

Suharto, a crafty, tough former general, had maneuvered right up to the end, making major concessions that in effect represented victory for students. On Tuesday, he appeared to give the opposition what it wanted--agreeing to carry out political reforms, name a new Cabinet and hold fresh elections in which he would not be a candidate.

But resistance to his rule continued, in part because he did not set a timetable for stepping down.

Suharto’s end was the result of a popular movement that gained widespread support after six students were shot to death by security forces May 12. The final chapter of Suharto’s rule was written Wednesday as 40,000 Indonesian troops backed by tanks and attack dogs took over Jakarta.

The massive military buildup, which took place as Jakarta slept, forced dissidents to cancel a downtown rally that they had said would put 1 million anti-Suharto protesters on the streets. Their decision may have averted bloodshed, diplomats said.

Amien Rais, who has emerged as Indonesia’s most prominent opposition figure, said he called off the rally at the eleventh hour after a general telephoned him to warn that another Tiananmen Square was in the making--a reference to the 1989 massacre in Beijing of hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of protesters.

Despite the show of force in Jakarta, the military command let students continue their occupation of the nation’s parliament building and grounds. In other cities, as many as 1 million people, including 500,000 in Yogyakarta, marched peacefully.

Before dawn Wednesday, the soldiers moved into Jakarta in convoys of trucks, tanks and armored personnel carriers. They lumbered down the darkened boulevards and through riot-torn neighborhoods, and their presence sent an unmistakable message: The military was not going to let the demonstration happen.

When Jakartans awoke, they found their metropolis transformed. Major intersections had been barricaded. Barbed wire had been strung around key sites. Tanks had established fields of fire over the approaches to downtown, and Merdeka Square--where protesters were to have gathered--was ringed with 40 armored personnel carriers, hundreds of soldiers, mounted police and a unit of attack dogs.

Jakartans reacted by staying hunkered down in their homes, except for the area around parliament, where the mood was festive.

What was clear Wednesday was that neither side was itching for a fight. Students at the parliament--wearing headbands with the slogan, “peaceful reform,” spoke of the need for nonviolence and made no attempt to carry their protest to the streets.

And the soldiers kept their bargain, making no attempt to interfere with the protest as long as it remained within the grounds of parliament.

By Wednesday night, the barricades had come down and most of the soldiers and the tanks had withdrawn. Jakarta cautiously stirred to life. Some cars and pedestrians took to the streets. A perilous moment had passed; and so too had Suharto’s political career.

* FUTURE OF IMF AID: Money to help Indonesia will depend on new leadership and the reforms made. A12

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Profile: Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie

* Born: June 25, 1936, in Parepare on the island of Sulawesi, the fourth of eight children.

* Residence: Jakarta, Indonesia.

* Education: Doctorate in aeronautical engineering at the Technische Hochschule in Aachen, Germany.

* Career highlights: 1950s, met future President Suharto, who was a military officer posted to Sulawesi; 1960-1973, worked in Germany as research scientist and aviation engineer, rising to become a deputy director at an aerospace company; mid-1970s, returned to Indonesia, where Suharto gave him his own government department and unlimited funds to build Southeast Asia’s first aircraft industry; 1978, named state minister of research and technology; 1990, placed by Suharto at the head of a new group called the Indonesian Assn. of Muslim Intellectuals; March 1998, appointed vice president of Indonesia.

* Family: Married Hasri Ainun, May 12, 1962; they have two sons.

-- Compiled by Scott J. Wilson, Los Angeles Times