Seth Mydans, Jakarta, – The Government displayed its power today, using tear gas, rubber bullets and an overwhelming armed presence on the streets of Jakarta, the capital, to quash attempts by its opponents to hold rallies on the last day of campaigning for next week's parliamentary election.

As black-uniformed marines, riot policemen padded like hockey goalies and 20,000 soldiers in battle gear guarded key neighborhoods, hit-and-run convoys of young men on motorcycles buzzed through the city waving banners and gunning their engines.

Rioting erupted in south Jakarta – as it has in several cities during this violent, monthlong campaign – when a mob of young men from the governing party, Golkar, threw rocks and attacked demonstrators from the People's Democratic Party, the bigger of the two legal opposition parties.

As the crowds ran wild, smashing windows and storefronts along a two-mile thoroughfare, security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets as they did during more widespread rioting in the capital on Tuesday in which one person was reported to have been killed.

Starting on Saturday, campaigning will be banned during a five-day cooling-off period before the election, in which 125 million people are eligible to vote.

In his 31 years in power, President Suharto has raised Indonesia from hunger and poverty, producing one of the region's economic success stories but one of its most stunted countries in terms of democratic ideals.

Golkar has held a monopoly on power at all levels, and elections have been orchestrated more as pageants than as contests for office, so the outcome of the voting on Thursday is certain.

But widespread corruption, Government abuses, rising unemployment and underemployment and growing demands for a popular voice in national affairs have exposed a deep vein of discontent and anger here in the world's fourth-largest country. The resulting atmosphere of tension has made this the most violent election campaign here in recent times, with 123 people reported killed.

Golkar is assured of an overwhelming vote in part because millions of people in the military and in Government service D from teachers to civil servants D will be required to vote for the Government party.

But it was hard to find anyone on the streets of the city today who spoke in favor of the Government. They talked of corruption and unemployment and injustice, but the passionate issue appeared to be Mr. Suharto's autocratic rule.

"This is not democracy; this is power," said one man who declined to give his name. "This is not a president; this is a king."

Even a 28-year-old marine lieutenant, who said his orders were to bar opposition demonstrators, said it was time for a change.

"We want to have a place that is structured more like America, so that there is social justice for our people," he said. " People should have a voice, but in fact they don't."

Even an opposition landslide on Thursday would not oust Mr. Suharto. Voters are to choose 425 elected legislators. Together with 500 other representatives chosen by the Government and 75 members from the military, they will form a 1,000-member People's Consultative Assembly that will elect the next President in 1998.

Though Mr. Suharto has not announced his intentions, he is widely believed to be planning to continue in office. But he is 75, and already the nation is looking ahead toward an uncertain future.

The President has made no public provision for a successor, and that question mark has contributed to a growing restiveness in this country of 200 million. The last transition of power, when Mr. Suharto succeeded

Indonesia's founding President, Sukarno, was accompanied by a purge of Communists that led to widespread killings in which some 500,000 people died.

The Government acted early, one year ago, to choke off potential opposition. It engineered a split in the opposition People's Democratic Party that forced the ouster of its popular leader, Megawati Sukarnoputri, a daughter of Mr. Sukarno.

When that action sparked wide spread rioting in Jakarta last July the Government launched a cam campaign of arrests and interrogations intended to neutralize its opponents.

A growing number of Indonesians appear to have joined a movement to boycott the election, either by staying away from the polls or by spoiling their ballots.

On Thursday, Mrs. Megawati added fuel to this movement, announcing that she would not vote. But she carefully avoided urging others to boycott the election: other people who have called for a boycott have been arrested.