New Leader Seeks to Reassure Nation

JAKARTA, Indonesia — This emotionally exhausted nation stumbled into an uncharted era Thursday with a new president and old political and economic problems that Western analysts say will take years to fix.

Just hours after being sworn in to office, President B. J. Habibie went on national television to reassure Indonesians that he would appoint an experienced, professional Cabinet and run a government free of corruption. He said Indonesia would honor its commitments to the International Monetary Fund.

He surprised some viewers by heaping lavish praise on his predecessor, President Suharto, who was forced to resign Thursday after a popular uprising against his 32-year rule. “I believe people feel the same gratitude [as I do] for his service,” Habibie said, somewhat inexplicably.

This morning he named his new “reformation Cabinet.” He swept out old-guard Suharto cronies, including the ex-president’s daughter, Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, 49, and Suharto’s billionaire golfing buddy, Mohammed “Bob” Hasan. He kept Gen. Wiranto as both minister of defense and security and chief of the armed forces.

Political analysts, on first reading, were pleased by the appointments. The new Cabinet is more broad-based than was Suharto’s and includes members of all three officially sanctioned parties as well as opposition figures and respected economists.

Indonesia’s most prominent opposition leader, Amien Rais, asked not to be included in the Cabinet so he could maintain his independence.

Ali Abdullah Alatas stayed on as foreign minister and Ginandjar Kartasasmita as economy minister. Among new faces in key positions are Hamzah Has as minister of investment and capital, Bambang Subianto as finance minister and Rahadi Ramelan as minister of trade and industry.

Though many Indonesians worried that Habibie, as Suharto’s protege and closest friend, might just represent more of the same, Rais extended an olive branch, saying Indonesians should let Suharto enjoy his old age and give Habibie a chance to carry out the reforms that student demonstrators demanded.

“Like it or not, we have to accept Habibie as our president,” Rais told a news conference. “I will be his sparring partner, and I will critique him when I disagree with his decisions.”

While the international financial community took a wait-and-see attitude toward Habibie and the shifts in the Indonesian regime, President Clinton on Thursday praised Suharto’s “wise decision” to resign and called on the country’s leaders to move swiftly forward with “an open and peaceful transition.”

“The United States stands ready to work, as we have with other nations in the past, to support Indonesia’s leaders and people as they pursue democratic reform,” Clinton said.

Meantime, given the stunning success of the student movement in bringing down a leader who seemed invincible just months ago, Indonesia’s reaction was surprisingly muted. Except among students, there were no joyous celebrations, and no cars with honking horns filled the streets.

At the parliament building, which students have occupied since last week, victorious protesters hugged and wept and embraced the soldiers who had guarded them. They cavorted in the courtyard fountain and basked in their triumph, which had cost the lives of six students, shot by police during a demonstration May 12.

But most Indonesians, though glad to see Suharto go, reacted almost indifferently, perhaps as a result of their remoteness from a political system in which they have had little input over three decades.

“I don’t think Habibie will do any more for me than Suharto did,” said shopkeeper Aen Ichsan. “Besides, I don’t care about politics at all. What matters to me is that the economy get fixed.”

Jakarta had been through so much in the past seven days--riots that left 500 dead, a military takeover of the city, huge student demonstrations and finally Suharto’s surprise resignation--that the capital still felt jittery, and the people appeared emotionally drained. A substantial army presence was still on alert throughout Jakarta.

“I think we’ll have to wait a little longer to see how this all plays out,” said risk analyst Geoffrey Comben, an Australian who has lived in Indonesia for eight years. “Some of the expatriates I’ve talked to who left for Singapore during the riots said they’ll probably come back Monday. But they’re not bringing their families back yet.”

Students said they were unsure if they would continue their demonstrations. They had sought Suharto’s resignation, but the key element of their demands was for democratic reform, and it remained to be seen if Habibie would deliver on that.

There also was uncertainty over what role the military planned to play in the formation of the new government and who would fill the power vacuum left by Suharto’s departure.

Suharto had choked off all opposition during his rule, and there was no obvious leader around whom widespread popular support would naturally coalesce.

Many analysts believe that it could take six to nine months for Indonesia to stabilize politically.

“We haven’t seen the end of the problems yet by a long shot,” said Bruce Gale, a political analyst in Singapore. If Indonesia does indeed pursue reform, he and others noted, it will mean new laws, new political parties, new structures for the operation of parliament.

Indonesia also must grapple with an economy that has all but collapsed and could take four years to fix, economists said.

Once one of Asia’s great success stories, Indonesia has seen its currency lose 70% of its value, unemployment skyrocket, inflation head toward 100% annually and a departure during the civil unrest of thousands of expatriates and ethnic Chinese, both of whom are critical to the economy.

“Putting Indonesia back together again is not going to be an easy task,” said political commentator Wimar Witoelar.

But clearly a first step had been taken.

Governments around the world expressed relief that bloodshed had been averted in the transfer of power and offered support in rebuilding Indonesia.

Besides Clinton’s suggestion that Suharto’s resignation had provided “a chance for the Indonesian people to come together to build a stable democracy for the 21st century,” Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto--whose nation is the biggest contributor to the IMF’s $43-billion bailout package--said Tokyo would continue to support Indonesia’s plans for political and economic reforms.