Jakarta – Amid a massive show of force, the military warned it will not tolerate disruption of a crucial parliament session which will draw up the political parameters of post-Suharto Indonesia.

Television reports Sunday showed thousands of police and military at a mass parade ahead of a special plenary session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) here November 10-13, the first since Suharto's fall. Security for the plenary session, designed to pave the way for elections for a new president in 1999, will also be bolstered by 100,000 civilian volunteers.

Jakarta Police Chief Major General Nugroho Djajusman was quoted as telling the parade at a mid-city golf-driving range Saturday that the volunteers had formed self-defence units to ensure the success of the special session. They will bolster a turnout of some 30,000 army and police personnel, many of them on motor-cycles, to be deployed in Jakarta during the session, Nugroho said.

At the same parade, Jakarta Military Commander Major General Djaja Suparman warned of harsh action against any attempt to disrupt the session, which pro-reform student protestors have charged will be a "farce" because the MPR is packed with old Suharto-appointees.

Suharto, a former army general who ruled the country for 32 years, fell from power on May 21 amid growing protests against his autocratic rule and the size of the business empires controlled by his family and cronies.

"We'll arrest those who breach public order and the existing laws, even if they are trying to convey good messages," Suparman told the assembled troops and police, the Jakarta Post said. "We understand the protestors want to channel their aspirations, but we will take stern measures if they want to provoke anarchy and disturb public order," the Post quoted him as saying.

Nugroho said Saturday's show of force was "to show that we are ready" to secure the session and face the threat of any parties who want to disrupt it."

Political observers have noted that some of the major political and pro-reform figures to emerge as possible presidential candidates since the fall of Suharto will not be present at the MPR session as they are not members. They include Megawati Sukarnoputri, daughter of the country's first president Sukarno and head of an unrecognized but widely popular branch of the Indonesian Democracy Party, and noted Moslems Amien Rais and Abdurachman Wahid, popularly known as Gus Dur.

Education Minister Juwono Sudarsono said there was no reason to bar pro-reform students from protests as long as the demonstrations were non-violent. "They should not disrupt public order, cause destruction to civil property or clash with security personnel – as long as these three conditions are met, I see no problem," the Indonesian Observer quoted Juwono Sudarsono as saying.

Observers here said Sudarsono's statement, more positive than those made by the military, appeared to be in line with a strategy adopted by Suharto's successor, President B.J. Habibie. Habibie – a frequent target of the students who see him as an extension of Suharto – has, in recent speeches thanked the student demonstrators for helping to keep the reform process on track. Armed Froces Chief General Wiranto has also spoken out in the past week in favor of "the right to expression" while insisting it be linked to "a citizen's responsibility to maintain law and order while those views are being expressed."

The MPR session will debate new laws on political parties, rules on elections, and the composition of the MPR and the lower house or DPR, to enable elections for the DPR to be held in May and a new president and vice president to be chosen by January 2000.

Habibie last week said he would stay in power until January 2000, despite calls for him to step down, saying democracy would not have a chance to get off the ground unless he nursed the election process through to the end.

[On October 24 the Straits Times reported that Suharto will be barred from attending the session. According to the Indonesian Observer, some political analysts belive he was not invited as certain legislators would have ordered him to account for his short-lived seventh presidential term - James Balowski.]