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ASIA
JUNE 14, 1999 VOL. 153 NO. 23
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A Fresh Start
Supporters of Megawati Sukarnoputri flooded Jakarta's streets on the final day of campaigning. Greg Girard--Contact Press Images for TIME
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Indonesia's election campaign passed peacefully, but with little talk about issues. Now the real effort begins to build the post-Suharto system
By TERRY McCARTHY Jakarta
The party is over in Indonesia. after two weeks of festive street rallies in the runup to this week's general election, the hard work of tallying votes and brokering coalition deals is about to begin--a process that could take weeks or even months. In habitual democracies, elections provide the answers to political conundrums; in Indonesia, the first free election in 44 years is just setting out the questions.
The single biggest unknown, in a country where power is concentrated overwhelmingly at the center: Who will be the next president? Citizens on Monday were voting to fill 462 seats in parliament; a further 238 appointees will join them to elect the next president. That ballot is scheduled for November, but if the pro-reform parties of Megawati Sukarnoputri, Amien Rais and Abdurrahman Wahid (also known as Gus Dur) capture a combined majority this week, the selection of a president is likely to be advanced several months, to avoid an extended political vacuum.
This week's election won't necessarily clear things up. Strains are already emerging in the alliance among the three largest pro-reform parties. Gus Dur has been publicly critical of Amien Rais for courting other potential partners, while Megawati's advisers privately say she finds Rais difficult to work with." Will any of the three parties be able to accept the leader of one of the other parties as presidential candidate?" asks Hilman Adil, a researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences. Much will depend on how each group fares at the polls. "The parties don't know how much support they have," says Siswono Yudo Husodo, chairman of the Movement for National Justice and Unity, a recently established pro-democracy NGO. "Each thinks it has the most supporters."
Nor is it apparent where the leaders stand on the key issues facing Indonesia. The campaigning often seemed more show than substance. In place of the angry anti-Suharto and pro-reform slogans of demonstrating students last year, campaigners made most of their noise revving motorcycle engines. That's partly because there were no direct candidates: voting was for parties, with the actual seat-holders to be decided after the percentages for each party have been tallied. But if there was little detailed debate, one issue seemed abundantly clear to the men, women and children with painted faces, the transvestites in drag, the students with dyed hair, the drum-beating dancers and others who clogged the streets with each day's rally: things must change. The elections of the past, when the ruling Golkar party won a pre-set quota of the vote, are no more. Few had any idea what new system of government they would be voting for, but they knew they would no longer be browbeaten into making their choice. One other thing was clear: freedom is fun.
Along the way, Indonesians taught outsiders a few lessons. For one thing, the majority of citizens are more tolerant and pluralistic than the more-visible firebrand fringe would suggest. The widespread violence predicted for the campaign period did not materialize, though security forces in Jakarta fired blanks on Friday to disperse protesters who were stoning Golkar supporters on the last day of rallies. The calm allowed newspapers to focus on President Suharto's vow to sue TIME for its recent article on his family's wealth. On Wednesday, the former President filed a complaint at the National Police Headquarters, claiming there was no evidence "that I transferred $9 billion from a Swiss bank to an Austrian bank" and asking police to investigate the report. One of his lawyers, Juan Felix Tampubolon, later said a lawsuit would be lodged this week at the Central Jakarta District Court. TIME stands by its story.
Back on the streets, a last-minute attempt to inject a religious element into the campaign created some concern. National television last week repeatedly showed Zainuddin MZ, one of Indonesia's best-known Islamic preachers, solemnly telling believers to vote only for Muslim leaders "whose Islam is not doubtful." Pamphlets distributed in many mosques were more direct: Muslims were openly advised to oppose Megawati's PDI-P party--which has many non-Muslim members--and instructed that, according to the Koran, "Allah forbids Muslims to choose a leader who is not of our faith." Although Rais publicly criticized moves to "polarize" society into religious and secular factions, most candidates chose to ignore the religious taunting. "The Islamic parties were misled by the illusion of numbers," says Sarwono Kusumaatmadja, a former environment minister. "With 80% of the country Muslim, they thought they should get the largest slice of the vote. It's not happening."
As campaigning ended, the front-runner was clearly Megawati, the 52-year-old daughter of Indonesia's first President, Sukarno. Her slow-burning political career finally ignited, as her party's red flags--with a bull in the center--dominated the street scene in cities and towns across the nation. Her main challenger is Rais, a former university professor. His blue-clad campaigners balanced precariously on the saddles of motorbikes as he himself tried to walk the tightrope between his Islamic background and his aspiration to lead post-Suharto reforms. Although Megawati and Rais are technically part of an alliance, strains between them became evident when Rais late last month formed a separate alliance with two Muslim parties. Some analysts expect friction between the two to increase after the vote.
Now that she is the favorite, Megawati is attracting opportunistic supporters from other parties. Some within her ranks worry about the recent influx of wealthy Catholics from the dying Golkar party; the newcomers are gaining senior positions ahead of aides who stood by Megawati in the bad old days of Suharto's persecution. "She is surrounded by people who want to use her charisma to advance their own agendas," says Josef Kristiadi of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta. The party is over. Now the real political contest begins.
With reporting by David Liebhold and Zamira Leobis/Bangkok
THIS WEEK'S TABLE OF CONTENTS
R E L A T E D
S T O R I E S :
INDONESIA: Balkans of the East?
On the verge of a historic general election, the people of the diverse archipelago are reassessing their identity
INDONESIA: New-Found Power
Still skittish after last year's brutal assaults, Indonesia's ethnic Chinese community will be a significant factor in next month's election
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S P E C I A L
R E P O R T S :
SUHARTO INC.: All in the Family
Indonesian officials say they can't find evidence of ill-gotten wealth. But a four-month TIME investigation reveals that the former President and his children now have assets worth $15 billion, including fancy homes, jewelry, fine art and private jets
CNN.com: Indonesia Votes
An in-depth look at the archipelago's first true democratic elections since 1955
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This edition's table of contents | TIME Asia home
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