As 50,000 Indonesians fight riot police
Election reflects military and parliamentary maneuvers
By
Deirdre Griswold
After a mass upheaval followed by a slick parliamentary
maneuver, Indonesia has a new government. The president is
Abdurrahman Wahid, whose surprise selection by the People's
Consultative Assembly came after the withdrawal of B.J.
Habibie, the former president and candidate of Golkar, the
military party.
Habibie's withdrawal at the last minute was clearly a
maneuver by Golkar to ensure that Megawati Sukarnoputri, who
had earlier won the largest popular vote, would be denied the
presidency. Megawati is the daughter of Sukarno, Indonesia's
first president, who was in effect overthrown by the military
after a coup in 1965--although the generals kept him on as a
figurehead until his death.
Running battles in the streets
As the assembly was thwarting the popular will by choosing
Wahid over Megawati, 50,000 pro-Megawati demonstrators held
running battles with riot police and army troops all over the
capital city of Jakarta. Twenty people were reported
wounded.
The new president then moved quickly to stabilize the
situation by naming Megawati his vice president. She accepted
and called off the protests in Jakarta. But in Bali and in the
city of Medan in northern Sumatra--both areas with a long
history of militant mass movements and government
repression--the struggle continued.
Indonesia's stock market shot up by 5.5 percent when it
became known that Megawati would accept the second spot, and
the rupiah strengthened against the U.S. dollar. Both were
clear signs that the Indonesian bourgeoisie expect her to calm
down the frustrated and angry masses, who have suffered under
iron military rule and a deep recession.
There is no question that the mass support for Megawati is
based on a virulent rejection of Indonesia's military clique
after 34 years of fascist terror. General Suharto, who
overthrew Sukarno and led a bloodbath that slaughtered one
million progressives, ruled Indonesia until a year and a half
ago. But the recession has spurred a militant new generation to
take to the streets, and Suharto had to step back from the
presidency when his troops proved unable to contain it.
However, the military continued to wield power through
Suharto's hand-picked successor, B.J. Habibie, and through
military officers in key positions in the government and
economy. This was unacceptable to the masses, who have come
into the streets in ever greater numbers.
While these developments have been shaking up the rotten
established order in Indonesia, world attention has been
focused on Indonesia's role in East Timor. The United Nations
has sent troops, led by the Australians, to end repression
there by Indonesian soldiers and paramilitaries and pave the
way for a transition from Indonesian rule. In this, the Western
imperialists have appeared to play the role of defenders of
human rights and self-determination.
Where were they all these years?
All this comes very, very late. Indonesia's invasion of East
Timor in 1975 had the blessing of Washington and of Canberra.
Since then, while Indonesia massacred up to a third of the
Timorese population, the U.S. has been the major supplier of
weapons and training to the Indonesian military.
Clearly, it is not humanitarianism but a rethinking of how
to defend U.S. imperialist interests in the region in the light
of a rising mass movement that has led to Washington's support
for the UN action in East Timor.
Those interests are many. First, there is major imperialist
investment in Indonesia's natural resources--including a rich
oil field just off East Timor. For many years, transnational
corporations were quite happy with the military rulers in
Indonesia. A Fortune magazine article in July 1973 was entitled
"Oil and Nationalism Mix Beautifully in Indonesia." But that
was when the military was effective in preventing the workers
from organizing.
It was also when the Indonesian economy was growing
strongly, and was not yet burdened with a huge foreign debt.
Today, imperialist banks and corporations are looking for a new
political combination that can stabilize the situation and put
the economy back on its feet--so interest payments can resume
and profits will flow once again.
A new cabinet named by Wahid represents a compromise with
sectors of the ruling class outside the military. However, the
generals still hold key positions.
The Minister of Mines and Energy is Lt. Gen. Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono. This is the most crucial position in the economy,
since Indonesia is heavily dependent on its earnings from oil
and minerals.
Another military officer with great power in the new cabinet
is Gen. Wiranto, who is now Coordinating Minister of Political
and Security Affairs. That puts him in charge of the part of
the state that deals directly with political suppression.
Wiranto is a central figure in the cabal of generals that has
ruled Indonesia.
Other posts going to figures with direct ties to the
military include the Minister of Home Affairs, Minister of
Defense, Minister of Industry and Trade, Minister of
Transportation, Minister of Manpower, State Minister of Social
Affairs and Attorney General.
The ground in Indonesia is shaking, but the old generals are
not fading away--they are merely moving out of the limelight.
The election was not a revolution, but it showed the growing
combativeness of the masses.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
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