An imposed peace

An imposed peace

One year after president Soeharto left office, Indonesia still offers a salutary case study of what a strongman's rule, and its sudden termination, can do to a country.

The trials and tribulations which its people have to endure are a painful reminder of what a sudden transition from authoritarian rule to nascent democracy entails...

The important question... is whether the stability which a Third World country needs badly for orderly economic development is ever possible without authoritarianism.

The fact is that the order and relative peace which president Soeharto imposed on his people provided the framework for an impressive edifice of development.

-- The Straits Times, Singapore