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