Indonesia's President Suhahrto was Monday granted unspecified new security powers to counter social unrest and subversion.
The People's Consultative Assembly which is set to return Suharto Tuesday to office for a seventh term gave no details of the powers in a decree announcing the move.
Phil Smith, Jakarta – Indonesia is being criticised for not implementing the International Monetary Fund's new set of economic reforms quickly enough and President Suharto has come under increasing pressure from agencies and governments to get things going.
The following is a summary of two messages (translated) received today from a group in West Papua.
Jakarta - Police will question the chief editor of an Indonesian magazine that was rapped by the government for a "degrading" cover on President Suharto, the Jakarta Post reported on Saturday.
Washington – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will not disburse a second 3 billion dollar installment of its loan to financially beleaguered Indonesia before April, an IMF spokeswoman said Friday.
Jenny Grant, Jakarta – Indonesia's Golkar party says it will trust President Suharto with sweeping new special powers - but was at a loss to describe what they will entail.
"We will give the powers and it means we trust the President to report it to Parliament," senior Golkar member Marwah Daud Ibrahim said yesterday.
Seth Mydans, Jakarta – As an electoral assembly moved through its scripted steps Friday toward the expected re-election of President Suharto next week, the new players on the Indonesian scene – international financial traders – voted no-confidence in the economy.
Geoff Spencer, Balikpapan – Five men, some with shoes, others barefoot, trudged up the smoky forest highway toward a wall of flames.
"We're here to put out the fire. The authorities gave us these," one said, proudly referring to a battered plastic water tank strapped to his back.
Until now, he explained, they had to beat flames out with tree branches.
Ian Stewart in Kuala Lumpur and Jenny Grant in Jakarta
Hunger is forcing thousands of Indonesians to flee to Malaysia, police there said yesterday.
A senior police officer said recent batches of illegal immigrants from Indonesia sought arrest so that they could enjoy proper meals.
1997
July 8: Indonesia's currency, the rupiah, begins to fall. The Government widens its rupiah trading band from 8 to 12 percent.
July 24: Several Asian currencies - the Thai baht, the Malaysian ringgit, the Philippine peso and the Indonesian rupiah - all slump as confidence in the region rapidly deteriorates.
Seth Mydans, Jakarta – As a decision nears on whether to infuse billions of dollars in international aid into Indonesia, a close look at President Suharto's performance shows a pattern of evasions and half-measures on the economic reforms he agreed to recently.
Nick Edwards, Singapore – Choking smog that blanketed much of Southeast Asia last year is set to be even worse in 1998 as tinderbox-dry Indonesian forest is consumed by fire, experts said on Thursday.
Jakarta - Some two thousand students of a state university in Padang, West Sumatra, held a rally Thursday to reject a further term in office for President Suharto and demand reforms.
Jenny Grant, Jakarta – Jailed trade unionist Muchtar Pakpahan warned a senior US State Department official yesterday against donating aid to Indonesia without demanding political reforms.
The Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Stanley Roth, met Pakpahan for one hour at a hospital where he is receiving medical treatment for a lung tumour.
Christopher Torchia, Jakarta – Thousands of banner-waving university students demanded President Suharto's ouster Wednesday – the largest display of anger yet over the economic crisis that has Indonesia in an upheaval.
Jakarta – Thousands of Indonesian students shouting "reject Suharto" rallied at two campuses Wednesday to demand the resignation of their country's veteran ruler, witnesses said.
Jakarta – Indonesia's foreign exchange reserves dropped to 16.33 billion U.S. dollars at the end of February from 17.07 billion dollars Feb. 16, and from 28.85 billion dollars in June 1997, before the country began to face its current economic crisis, the central bank said Tuesday.
Jakarta – According to SiaR sources, General Wiranto, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces is to be replaced in mid-March. Wiranto will fill a post in the new cabinet as Minister of Defence and Security. The source mentioned that General Subagyo, presently Chief of Staff of the Army (KSAD), will replace Wiranto, while the post of KSAD will be filled by Lieut.Gen. Prabowo.
123 demonstrators who took part in a 'Red-and-White Brigade' demonstration in Jakarta on 11 February are to be charged under Law No 5/PNPS/1993 regarding involvement in political activities, according to the public affairs officer of the Jakarta police force. The law allows a maximum penalty of five years.
Jakarta – The Indonesian military Monday formally denied persistent rumours an army battalion had deserted its base on the outskirts of Jakarta and accused an outlawed leftist group of trying to stir up trouble.
Balikpapan – Wildlife officials said Saturday that they had found the charred remains of dozens of rare animals in a national park in eastern Borneo, where forest fires are burning.
[The following is a slightly abridged translation of an interview with the coordinator of the Central Committee Leadership of the People's Democratic Party (Komite Pimpinan Pusat - Partai Rakyat Demokratik, KPP-PRD), Mirah Mahardika.]
Asia: As the Indonesian president prepares for a 7th term amid social and financial upheaval, the White House decides that pressing for radical change could lead to chaos.
Jenny Grant, Samarinda – Towns and villages in East Kalimantan province are suffering a severe water crisis, with river levels drastically lowered by drought and fire-fighting.
The low level of the capital Samarinda's main Mahakam River has made water from it unfit for people to drink.
Jakarta - The essential qualifications to be Indonesia's vice-president are a low profile and a good supply of jokes to entertain President Suharto, outgoing Vice-President Try Sutrisno has said.
Try, who is retiring at the end of a five-year term in March, was quoted by the Jakarta Post on Saturday as telling local reporters that Suharto was like a "ship's captain."
Jakarta – With the General Session of the People's Consultative Assembly only three days away, students across Java staged demonstrations yesterday to press their demands for lower prices and political reform.
Major peaceful demonstrations were staged in Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Purwokerto and Kudus.
Palembang – The LBH (Institute for Legal Aid) regional offices in Palembang were attacked at 1 PM today (26/2) by a group of unknown assailants. Stones and bottles of beer were thrown, causing some damage to the facilities, mostly broken windows.
Jakarta – Muslim politician Amien Rais, a longtime critic of the Suharto administration, yesterday said that he was withdrawing his bid for the presidency and supporting the re-election of Mr Suharto for a record seventh five-year term.
Jakarta's vice-presidential battle may help Soeharto save face, suggests George J. Aditjondro
A defiant Suharto gambles everything on an unorthodox financial plan that could cost Indonesia the IMF's support. In the process, the region's one-time leader may have become its biggest liability.
Jakarta – More than 3,000 students rallied noisily in the Indonesian capital Thursday, blaming President Suharto and his government for the crisis which has crippled the country.
Jakarta – The ruling Golkar's executive board has warned its MPs that they face unspecified disciplinary action if they nominated anyone other than Research and Technology Minister B. J. Habibie at next week's presidential and vice-presidential election, newspapers here reported yesterday.
The resurgence of bush and forest fires in Indonesia has raised fears of a return of the massive blanket of smog that smothered much of Southeast Asia last year. The haze of 1997 was caused by thousands of blazes across the country, but why were they so widespread?
Jakarta – Fires raged in remote Indonesian forests Wednesday as regional environmental ministers met to try to avoid a repeat of last year's choking haze which engulfed much of SE Asia.
Estimates of the number of fires burning in East Kalimantan alone ranged between 300 and 1,000 while dozens more were said to be blazing in Riau, central Sumatra.
Canberra – International Monetary Fund Director for Asia-Pacific Hubert Neiss Wednesday said the fund is examining ways to preserve subsidies for food, rice and cooking oil in Indonesia under its assistance package.
Jakarta – A long-time bastion of support for President Suharto turned on him Wednesday as hundreds of current and former students at the University of Indonesia, Jakarta, condemned the leadership they helped to install in 1966
Jakarta – Hundreds of students have rallied in one Indonesian city and six are on hunger strike elsewhere demanding comprehensive political and economic reforms.
Jakarta – The spectre of current food shortages leading to a famine throughout the island of Java has emerged as a major threat to President Suharto's regime, observers say, adding it could even cripple his hold on power.
Seth Mydans, Samarinda – Indonesia The eastern coast of Borneo, dry after a year of drought, is bursting into flame again, raising fears that a wave of choking smoke could soon blanket Southeast Asia as it did last autumn.
Keith B. Richburg, Jakarta – Indonesia-Indonesia, the world's fourth-most populous country, is sliding steadily toward economic and social chaos.
At a time when Indonesia is in the grip of a grave economic and political crisis, President Suharto, the Indonesian dictator, with the support of ABRI, the Indonesian armed forces, is further intensifying the level of repression in his determination to stay in power at all costs.
Three women activists of the group of "Suara Ibu Peduli" who were organising and participating in a peaceful demonstration in front of the Hotel indonesia, Jakarta, were arrested by the Police and taken into the custody of Polda Jaya, Monday, 23 Feb, 1998.
The three women are Dr. Karlina Leksono Supeli, Gadis Arivia Effendi, and Wilasih Noviana.
David Jenkins – As Indonesian street demonstrations go, it may not have seemed much to write home about. A couple of dozen young men, some with their baseball caps worn backwards, milling about under the tamarind trees, shouting abuse at the occupants of a nearby office block and holding up placards painted on white, pink and pale blue cardboard.
Peter Hartcher – One of Indonesia's key Islamic leaders has promised to lead a "people's power" mass movement to unseat President Soeharto unless his regime can solve the country's crisis within a year.
To all of the Indonesian people who are patriots and continue to struggle from the Central Leadership Committee of the People's Democratic Party (PRD) – February 20, 1998.
The national situation
Jose Manuel Tesoro, Jakarta – For Indonesia's Armed Forces, summoning 25,000 troops in full battle gear to a rain-slicked parking lot in south Jakarta early Feb. 7 was its way of making a statement.
Barry Porter, Jakarta – Indonesia's President Suharto is showing signs he may yield to mounting international pressure and postpone his controversial plan to introduce a Hong Kong-style currency board system.
German Finance Minister Theo Waigel emerged from a meeting with the Indonesian leader saying he had been given the impression that the plan was now under review.
Mantik Kusjanto, Jakarta – President Suharto made a surprise move on Friday to restore fading confidence among Indonesians in their government by guaranteeing a pay-out on all legal deposits in 16 banks liquidated last year.
The government had previously said it would cover up to 20 million rupiah in each account of the 16 banks which amounted to 1.7 trillion rupiah.
Jakarta - Demonstrations and riots to protest the increase in the nine basic needs and demands for political reform which have erupted in several cities and regions during the period over the month of January up to 19 February l998 have resulted in 3 deaths, 921 detentions and 14 disappearances.
James Woodford – The Chief of the Defence Force, General John Baker, the Foreign Minister, Mr Downer, and the Defence Minister, Mr McLachlan, expressed serious concerns yesterday about the strategic implications of the economic turmoil gripping Asia.