Jakarta's power disintegrating

Jakarta's power disintegrating

Gruesome pictures of beheaded Indonesians bear dreadful testimony to the dangerous disintegration of the power of the republic's central government.

Violent deaths are occurring daily throughout the vast archipelago. While many of them are the result of the huge pressures caused by Indonesia's economic collapse, hundreds have been killed in direct retribution for the transmigration program aggressively promoted by the Soeharto government, which clamped down hard on dissent and expressions of interracial and interreligious animosity.

It would be easy to argue that the Jakarta government should be more active. But the administration of President B.J. Habibie has already moved far more quickly on reform than most expected. The proximity of the (June 7) polls has hamstrung Habibie on further reforms. The decision of the Indonesian Armed Forces to wind down direct involvement in the political process has left a hiatus in civil law enforcement that cannot be easily filled. Depressing as it sounds, prospects for an early end to the killings are not good.

-- The Australian, Sydney