END OF AN ERA

May 22, 1998
		After a background report on the changes in Indonesia, Independent Television News reporter Ian Williams talks from Jakarta with Charles Krause in Washington.

Online NewsHour Special Report: Indonesia Oct. 20, 1999: Wahid selected as Indonesia's president. July 8, 1999: A discussion on Indonesia's election process. June 2, 1998: Indonesia attempts to form a democratic government. May 22, 1998: A discussion on changes in the Indonesian government. May 21, 1998: Indonesia in the wake of Suharto's resignation. May 20, 1998: Should Suharto resign? May 19, 1998: Suharto announces plans to step down. May 15, 1998: A report on the riots in Jakarta. May 14, 1998: Students protest against Suharto. March 10, 1998: A discussion on Indonesia's economic importance. Feb. 27, 1998: Can Indonesia restore confidence in its currency? Jan. 9, 1998: Indonesia's stock markets take a tumble. Browse the NewsHour's coverage of Asia.   Former Indonesian President B.J. Habibie Presidential candidate Megawati Sukarnoputri Indonesian Department of Foreign Affairs	IAN WILLIAMS, ITN: The army picked their moment carefully, waiting until the number of students had declined to a few hundred. They moved in a little over an hour ago, occupying the parliament building and the grounds which had been the venue of the festive student protests. Initially there was little rancor, and the operation proceeded without violent clashes. The soldiers moved methodically across the grounds of parliament, and students, who'd been at the forefront of the uprising, moved to leave the premises. It was this convict earlier today in parliament that set the scene for tonight's army operation.
	A unified opposition?
	Hundreds of supporters of President Habibie marched into the grounds of parliament. They denounced the students who'd been occupying the place all week. They'd been bussed in from around the country. It was clearly well organized, and the resulting standoff was only defused when soldiers separated the two groups. As they did so, the new president was announcing what he called a reformist cabinet. He dropped Suharto's daughter and two of his closest cronies but maintained half the old cabinet. Not surprisingly, the head of the military who engineered the change in power kept his job, as did the economics minister, widely respected abroad. But the line-up was not sufficiently reformist to win the endorsement of Amien Reis, the principal position leader, or of the students at parliament. Here the standoff defused, the army withdrew. Then they tried to calm the student with a little entertainment. But there was always the threat of more serious intervention by the military to clear parliament. And that's something the pro-Habibie mob may have been trying to provoke.
	A discussion with Ian Williams
	CHARLES KRAUSE: Ian Williams, welcome. There are reports now that the soldiers have begun to move in tothe parliament building. What can you tell us about that? IAN WILLIAMS: Well, the latest that we've heard is that a large number of troops have-are around the entranceto the parliament grounds where several hundred students remain singing and chanting. And they've been given anultimatum from the commander of those troops to leave the grounds. He says that they will be cleared from the grounds tonight. CHARLES KRAUSE: Is the opposition unified? IAN WILLIAMS: Well, this has been one of the problems that the opposition has faced in Indonesia, is there is avery fractious opposition. There-of course, for many, many years, for three decades-being an opponent of theregime here has been quite a dangerous occupation. What this has meant is that when you get a period like this of a political uprising, a social uprising, there are a number of figureheads who have emerged, both in the student movement and outside, but the degree of unity within the opposition movement is not very strong. CHARLES KRAUSE: And who is-what can you tell us about Amien Reis? IAN WILLIAMS: Well, Amien Reis used to be very close to the new president, Mr. Habibie. They were both part of the same Muslim intellectual group. In the past, Mr. Reis has been a more fervent nationalist, a more fervent Islamist than he appears now. He has moderated his views quite considerably. He has emerged very much as a figurehead, the most outspoken figurehead of the opposition movement here. But it's much more difficult to keep your finger on precisely what he stands for, or what sort of leader he would make if, indeed, he came into a position of authority.
	Assessing student support
	CHARLES KRAUSE: Do you sense that the students might back him, or does he have support among the students in Indonesia? IAN WILLIAMS: Well, the organization he heads is a lay Muslim organization with 20/30 million members, although those couldn't be regarded as active members. The students have certainly adopted him as the leader of their uprising, and he's given the most tumultuous welcome whenever he goes to the campus, or whenever he appears. Certainly, at the moment, the students back him as the most visible and the most outspoken of the opposition leaders, but whether that would be a lasting affiliation is a doubt. CHARLES KRAUSE: How is the capital, how is Jakarta whether the situation? Is there food available? Does life go on? IAN WILLIAMS: Well, part of the city has been devastated, Chinatown, for instance, which was the focus of a lot of the turmoil, a lot of the mob rampage. And there is barely a shopping center in the city now, which hasn't been burned and looted. That said, the streets have returned to a degree of normality and you're not seeing serious food shortages in the sense that people are being able to get their basic supplies. They rely more on markets, on going out of town, and a lot of the destruction was aimed at symbols of people who would see it here as wealth, of symbols of prestige, as symbols of the old regime, companies associated with the first family. So there is enormous destruction, but I wouldn't say it has caused those-that sort of dislocation and food shortage. CHARLES KRAUSE: If you would, the Chinese-there were reports of course that many of them tried to leave, some of them are in hiding. What do you expect will happen to them once this begins to settle down? IAN WILLIAMS: I would say that it would be some time before you see the ethnic Chinese who have really-were the driving force behind the economy here-return, bring their capital back, bring their business acumen back, and the economy's going to suffer enormously, because of that. I think a lot of people have fled to Hong Kong, to Singapore, equally as important, their capital has fled, and given the horror here, given the terrible treatment that's been meted out for ethnic Chinese, I think rebuilding that confidence, bringing back these people that were so important to the economy now devastated, is going to take some time. CHARLES KRAUSE: And a last question. You've covered many of these crises in Asia. How does this compare? And do you think that this situation might spread to some other regimes in the region? IAN WILLIAMS: Well, the difference with Indonesia is the frustration , the foment, the anger here has been building for a long time. But there was never any channels, any legitimate constitutional channels through which to channel it. And so when it exploded, it exploded onto the streets. You saw in Thailand, in Korea, examples of democratic systems where early in this crisis the people were able to remove their governments, to remove what they saw as corrupt and incompetent governments, blamed those leaders for what had gone wrong. And you have new governments in both those countries pursuing tough policies. Here it was much messier. There wasn't that mechanism to get rid of the old leader in a clean way. And one has to look at other parts of Asia. I would say that Dr. Mahatir in Malaysia is probably looking very uneasily over his shoulder at Indonesia at the moment because perhaps if there is another long-serving and rather autocratic leader in the same situation as Suharto, it is perhaps he. CHARLES KRAUSE: Ian Williams, thank you very much.