Indonesia's challenge

Indonesia's challenge

Applause, tears and relief greeted the election in Indonesia's parliament of Megawati Sukarnoputri to succeed Abdurrahman Wahid, the elderly, obstinate and ineffectual President dismissed for incompetence after 21 chaotic months in office.

Indonesia's problems, however, are multifarious and not tractable simply by better governance Indonesia is, essentially, a conglomeration of tribes, peoples and ethnicities whose only common factor is that they were once ruled by the Dutch. Since independence, the central government has spent most of its efforts trying to enforce its authority throughout the archipelago. This has led it to settle millions of migrants from the overcrowded island of Java in remoter areas and amid alien cultures, and using the army as an instrument of political control.

Both have now proved counterproductive. Resentment of the Javanese migrants has led to rebellion in Aceh and gruesome ethnic slaughter in central Borneo. The army has been humiliated in East Timor where its attempt to impose Jakarta's rule was rejected. Some Indonesians believe that this fissiparous nation will eventually break up, and the main issue is whether this can be managed peacefully or will come through violence. The country is no longer seen in Washington as a bulwark against communism. Whether President Megawati will receive anything more than verbal support from the West in her attempt to hold her country together is of vital importance to 225 million Indonesians as well as most of Southeast Asia. She needs good counsel and steady nerves.

-- The Times, London