Post-election Indonesian prospects

Post-election Indonesian prospects

When former president Soeharto ruled Indonesia general elections were staged like clockwork every five years with the results known well in advance. It is a measure of how much things have changed that there is still no final result from the poll three weeks ago.

With little over half the vote counted the broad outlines are clear. The secular nationalist Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) of Megawati Soekarnoputri is out in front with about 36 percent, followed by the ruling Golkar Party on 18.5 percent. The National Awakening Party (PKB) of Abdurrahman Wahid is on 18 percent.

It is difficult to imagine the presidency could be awarded to anyone other than Megawati. The fact that Megawati and (Muslim leader Abdurrahman) Wahid are in loose alliance gives her an added advantage.

Such an alliance would give Indonesia a government with three important characteristics. First it would have a strong grounding in Java. Second it would be a government which, while committed to reform, would be in no hurry to overturn the existing social and economic order. Finally it would be a government distinctly wary of modernist Islam.

-- The Sydney Morning Herald