[PEN-L:340] Indonesia

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

(Final paragraphs from informative article on Indonesia available at NY
Review of Books website: http://www.nybooks.com/nyrev/index.html)

 Meanwhile, on occupied East Timor,
 demonstrations continue. Habibie has met with
 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Bishop Belo, a defender
 of the rights of the East Timorese, and has promised
 to withdraw some troops and to discuss more
 autonomy for the island Indonesia brutally annexed
 in 1976. But many East Timorese demand
 independence, which in the eyes of the government
 is tantamount to starting the process of dismantling
 the nation?and so a bitter standoff continues. And
 on Irian Jaya?the Indonesian part of New
 Guinea?students and residents have taken to the
 streets demanding independence: two people have
 been killed so far.

 The World Bank and then the IMF have resumed the
 flow of bailout loans to Indonesia, but the economy
 is such a wreck that it is hard to imagine when it
 will recover. On top of the poverty and job losses
 and inflation (60 percent and rising), Indonesia, for
 the first time in decades, faces a rice shortage.
 Fasting will hardly solve the problem.

 Indonesia, though, may avoid being ravaged by
 racial anger and sectarianism if an experiment like
 Goenawan's and Amien's can be tried. There are
 certainly many Indonesians who hope it will be. But
 at the moment Amien is hesitating. For all his
 speeches on pluralism and the necessity of
 democratic politics, and for all his assurances to
 Goenawan that he wants to form a multireligious
 party, Amien still hasn't quite committed himself to
 the democrats. In early July, some reformers
 announced they'd formed a coalition to keep up the
 pressure on Habibie for new elections. They did so
 just before Habibie won another victory?his own
 man, State Secretary Akbar Tanjung, is now in
 charge of the government party, Golkar; and this
 means that there is little chance that the parliament
 can challenge Habibie before he calls elections next
 year. Meanwhile Amien stalls for time. He says he
 has to talk things over with his Muhammadiyah
 people. "We won't decide anything until things settle
 down and the political map is clear," he tells
 reporters.

 Not so long ago, Goenawan was talking to a group
 of young journalists and student activists who
 voiced suspicions about a coalition including
 Muslim leaders like Amien and former technocrats
 tainted by having worked for Suharto. "We have no
 experience in politics. We have to start from scratch
 like people did in Eastern Europe. You have to tone
 down your idealism and learn to negotiate and
 compromise," he said, speaking of the days ahead.
 "If we go the sectarian route, Indonesia has no
 future. But if we create a democracy, and Muslims
 lead the way, it will be an exciting experiment. If
 we don't grab this chance, it will be our fault and
 we shouldn't be forgiven." ?July 15, 1998

Louis Proyect

(http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)