Lawmakers Meet to Chart Indonesia’s Future

Six months after the fall of President Suharto, Indonesian lawmakers met Tuesday to exorcise the past and implement reforms that could bring democracy to the world’s fourth-most-populous country.

At stake, political analysts said, is nothing less than Indonesia’s survival as a viable nation: The return of foreign capital, the cessation of civil strife and the aspirations of more than 200 million people all depend on the policies the legislators intend to adopt by week’s end.

The special session of the 1,000-member People’s Consultative Assembly began against a backdrop of street demonstrations and extraordinary security that underscored the dangers of Indonesia’s political drift since Suharto’s fall from power.

Fifteen warships stood by in Jakarta Bay. More than 30,000 soldiers guarded the capital, and, for good measure, the government of President B. J. Habibie pressed into service 120,000 volunteer security agents. Many were out-of-town teenage toughs, armed with bamboo clubs, whose previous employment had been limited to collecting debts and handling other strong-arm chores for well-connected insiders.

Many people in this city of 10 million stayed home Tuesday, fearing an outbreak of violence between pro-reform students and the toughs, who each get $1 a day and a free lunch to demonstrate in support of the government. But Jakarta was spared the chaos it experienced during bloody riots in May, and the clashes that occurred between the two factions were scattered and relatively minor.

Since taking office in May, Habibie has promised to implement the political reforms demanded by students whose uprising led to the end of Suharto’s 32-year reign. But because Habibie is a Suharto protege and the assembly remains stacked with members who owe their well-being to Suharto, Indonesians are leery of Habibie’s commitment to true reform.

“If we don’t get the reforms the people are demanding, this country will fall into another crisis that we cannot afford,” political analyst Mohammed Hikam said. “You see the Thais starting the economic recovery process. The South Koreans too. And then there is us, waiting for the [International Monetary Fund] Santa Claus.”

In the past, the assembly met every five years to rubber-stamp Suharto’s “reelection” as president. But this time, the lawmakers and military officers are being asked, in effect, to legislate themselves out of power and give way to a democratically elected body. And that, skeptics say, is a tall order for officials who have parlayed their positions into wealth and power.

Among the key issues under debate are holding the next elections in 1999 and reducing or abolishing the army’s dual function as a political and military force. Reformers also want any party to be eligible to run in the elections, thus ending the virtual monopoly that Suharto’s Golkar party enjoys in the assembly. Also under debate is whether to limit the president to two five-year terms.

Under the current system, designed by Suharto to perpetuate himself as de facto president for life, half the assembly is appointed by the president. The other 500 legislators are members of parliament--425 of whom were elected during Suharto’s tenure and 75 of whom were appointed by the military.

“The [assembly] is still a Suharto relic,” said Subagio Anam, senior advisor to opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of Indonesia’s founding father, Sukarno. “It’s legitimate in the sense that it was elected in March and illegitimate in the sense that no one trusts it. It’s a ridiculous situation.”

As Indonesia’s autocratic ruler, Suharto was a master puppeteer. He controlled the strings to every power center, from the military to the parliament to the economy. Habibie has been a weak president, given to yielding to whoever exerts pressure, and those strings now dangle in the wind, especially since the military has been discredited by reports of its past excessive force and abuse of human rights.

But just as Suharto was indirectly brought down by an economy that turned from boom to bust, a recent upturn may allow Habibie to finish out his term.

The local currency, the rupiah, has strengthened and stabilized and is worth twice as much against the U.S. dollar as it was after the May riots. There is no longer fear of food shortages, and rice is again being distributed throughout the country.

“There is a good prospect that a sound foundation is emerging from which to begin recovery,” said Richard Newfarmer, the World Bank’s senior East Asia economist.