since November 24, 1998
On an Empty Stomach |
By DAVID LIEBHOLD Jakarta
Four months after President Suharto's ignominious exit, the country is feeling the full impact of the economic depression, and popular anger is getting out of control. Teams of looters have been brazenly raiding shops, warehouses, rice mills, shrimp ponds and teak plantations on the islands of Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Java. In many cases police and soldiers have been unable or unwilling to intervene. With the start of the new academic year, student demonstrations have begun again. Behind the new wave of unrest is the soaring cost of rice--up three
fold since A majority of the politically active students and several opposition parties are calling for Habibie to step down. But it is far from clear who or what would replace him--and whether a change of leadership would help. The National Coalition for Democracy, an alliance of 192 political parties and NGOs, is planning nationwide demonstrations to coincide with a special session of the People's Consultative Assembly beginning Nov.10. "We hope to surround the parliament building with at least 30,000 people, "says Ratna Sarumpaet, one of the organizers. "We won't leave until our demands have been met." Those demands include the replacement of Habibie with a "presidium"--a kind of collective presidency of prominent opposition leaders--and the withdrawal of the military from political and social affairs. While the ruling Golkar party has a huge majority of seats in the Assembly, delegates could break ranks with Habibie if public pressure is strong enough. Alternatively, some activists fear, a spate of demonstrations could lead the military to intervene, postponing the general election scheduled for next May. Either way, there is little relief in sight for Indonesia's poor. "There are 80 million people who can't afford the price of rice," concedes Minister of Food and Horticulture A.M. Saefuddin. Most disturbingly, some experts claim that cronyism in the Habibie administration has slowed the delivery of urgently needed food supplies from abroad. Recent changes to Indonesia's World Bank-approved system of rice procurement appear to serve politically connected interests, according to H.S. Dillon, director of the Center for Agricultural Policy Studies in Jakarta. "The people in power want to continue with the old ways," says Dillon. "Only the cast has changed." Without any reliable guarantee of law and order, Indonesia's 5 million ethnic Chinese--still in shock over the riots of last May--are bracing for more violence. "We are very worried," says Nurdin Purnomo, chairman of the Chinese-dominated Bhinneka Tunggal Ika party. "The army has to take very serious action. If they just stand back, the looting will get worse and worse and in the end nobody will be able to stop it." For Habibie, too, the portents are grim. While he has taken important steps toward dismantling the corrupt and authoritarian system of his predecessor, the President is still widely regarded as a hangover from the past. Last week he finally bowed to popular demands for a public investigation into Suharto's legendary wealth, but there is widespread skepticism about the seriousness of the two probes, one of which is to be conducted by Attorney General Andi M. Ghalib--the same man who initially accepted Suharto's denial that he had assets abroad. The President may be unpopular, but the opposition is neither organized nor united. While acknowledging that current arrangements are not ideal, Minister of Cooperatives Adi Sasono argues that Habibie remains the best available option. "The risks involved in the alternatives are just too high,"he says. Many intellectuals agree. But if their stomachs go on rumbling, ordinary Indonesians may find it more difficult to think things through. Photograph: At a Jakarta depot, children scoop up a few scattered grains of rice, a staple many people can no longer afford. |
The answers are at the bottom of the translation.
he trouble began with a rumor. In the eastern Sumatra fishing town of
Bagansiapi-api, word got around that a Malay man had been killed by an ethnic
Chinese following a minor traffic accident. Within hours, mobs of armed
men were rampaging through the streets, setting fire to mostly Chinese-owned
houses and shops. By sunrise last Wednesday more than 400 buildings had
been damaged or destroyed, and the Chinese fled to neighboring towns. It
was no isolated incident. Indonesians across the archipelago are running
amok. "Public order is breaking down," says Gunawan Muhamad, editor
of the recently unbanned newsweekly Tempo. "The army doesn't know what
to do."
last year--and other necessities. Families on average
incomes are struggling just to feed themselves. The unemployed, whose ranks
now number 18 million and are swelling at a rate of 15,000 a day, are going
hungry. But stability is also threatened by a crisis of confidence in President
B.J. Habibie and Indonesia's military. After four months in office, Habibie
has failed to shake off his image as a Suharto crony. Public respect for
the military, meanwhile, is at rock-bottom, severely undermining its capacity
to hold things together. "The government has no authority, and the
army is afraid to take strong measures," says Josef Kristiadi, deputy
director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta.
"This is very dangerous."