Indonesia in Need of Leadership

JAKARTA: Charred bodies, still clutching looted televisions. Police firing into crowds of student protesters. The death toll over 200 and rising: This is President Suharto's Indonesia; and no one, even his former allies, seems to want him in charge anymore.

The rioting alone won't topple Suharto. But it's making the military nervous. And the military doesn't like being nervous. "The army is really starting to lean on Suharto to step aside into a figurehead position," says TIME correspondent Terry McCarthy, reporting from Jakarta. "It could happen soon."

But the military faces the same "billion-dollar question" as they have for 32 years now, says McCarthy: If not Suharto, who? "There's no answer right now," he says. "But whoever it is will need the approval of the military. They're the ones that determine the succession of power." They might start by restoring the peace.