Help Indonesia now

Help Indonesia now

After three decades of stultifying dictatorship, Indonesians
have enjoyed two weeks of remarkable political freedom, marked
equally by exuberance and self-restraint. There is a sense in the
world's fourth most populous nation that the future is up for
grabs. For Indonesians as well as for U.S. policy towards that
important country, this is a moment of peril and opportunity.

President Soeharto surprised many by bowing to popular will
and resigning, without a last-ditch fight, after 32 years in
office. His handpicked successor, although no reformer by history
or inclination, is in his turn responding to popular demands for
change. Political parties, long banned, are forming; a few
political prisoners have been released; the press is criticizing
freely; labor unions are emerging from underground; a vigorous
debate is taking place on how best to further promote democracy.

These steps are only the beginning. Some 200 political
prisoners have not been freed. Many reformers believe that
elections should be held sooner than the 1999 schedule proposed
by President B.J. Habibie. The new President so far has refused
to discuss a change in policy towards East Timor, where the worst
human rights abuses of the Soeharto era took place; no democratic
government can sustain his no-negotiation stance.

And the new President, arguing that Indonesians should look to
the future, not the past, has so far resisted calls to examine
how Mr. Soeharto and his children amassed billions of dollars in
wealth. This, too, is a position that he will not be able to
sustain. The desire to avoid frenzied retribution is
understandable, but if Indonesia hopes to build an economy less
permeated by corruption, it will have to reveal the sins and
secrets of the old system.

The greatest threat to Indonesia's transition now is economic
collapse. The currency has lost most of its value, the price of
food staples has soared, and millions are unemployed. Starvation
among Indonesia's 200 million people is a real possibility. If
the economy is not righted soon, any hope of democratization may
be lost.

Herein lies America's opportunity. Sticking with Mr. Soeharto
almost to the end, it played not much of a role in his downfall,
and now it can best leave political debates to the Indonesians.
But, without taking sides in those debates, the United States
could support the democratic process by aiding fledgling civic
institutions, funding scholarships for students who suddenly see
their prospects for education disappearing, and, above all,
giving food and medicines in sufficient quantities to avert a
humanitarian disaster. A large and generous aid program now could
earn crucial goodwill for the United States while giving
Indonesia its best shot at finding its way toward democracy.

-- The Washington Post