Lee comes out in support of dual function

SINGAPORE (AFP): Indonesia needs to elect a new government to pursue reforms, but risks chaos if the Army is forced back to the barracks soon, Singaporean statesman Lee Kuan Yew said in remarks published Thursday.

"They need a government that will restore order and confidence. For that, they need elections to produce a government that will have legitimacy with their people," the former prime minister of Singapore said.

"Only such a government will have the clout to carry through the tough reforms they need. There are no soft options," he said in an interview with the Financial Times of London, excerpted in Singapore's Straits Times.

"The government has to restore confidence, get entrepreneurs to recapitalize their businesses and get goods and services to flow. If they do it in stages, do not try to have total change at once, and the army stays in support of the government, there is a fair chance that they can pull through."

Students who clashed with troops during last week's Special Session of the People's Consultative Assembly, clashes which left at least 15 people dead, want an end to the Indonesian Army's dual function of preserving security and participating in politics.

They have also demanded the resignation of Armed Forces chief Gen. Wiranto, who is also minister of defense.

"If they go for immediate and total change, and (say) out with the army, then there could be trouble," Lee said. "If the army is not in active support of the government, not an active participant in decisions affecting law and order, there could be chaos," he added.

Wiranto's support is perceived to be crucial to the political survival of President B.J. Habibie, who took over after bloody riots and a severe economic crisis forced veteran leader Soeharto to resign last May.

Elections for a new parliament are scheduled to take place by mid-1999, and the body will later elect a new president.

During last week's unrest, Habibie signed 12 draft decrees into law, including one that allowed the military to stay in the legislatures and continue their dominant role in politics.

Lee said Indonesia, the world's fourth largest nation with more than 200 million people, could rebound in five to 10 years, and urged industrial powers to help the country "recover as an open, forward-looking society".

The 75-year-old Lee, a political contemporary of Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines and Soeharto, after 31 years as prime minister stepped down in 1990 in favor of his protege Goh Chok Tong, but remains a senior minister in the cabinet and serves as a roving envoy for Singapore.