Vaudine England, Jakarta – The announcement of an arrest order for Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra by an embattled President Abdurrahman Wahid may have redrawn the political map, at least for a day.
But analysts and diplomats trying to make sense of the move against ex-president Suharto's youngest son suggested there may be more symbolism than content in Mr Wahid's apparently off-the-cuff remark.
"It's a bit suspicious," said one Western diplomat. "If there was evidence against Tommy, why have the police not already arrested him? This could be a another case of Wahid talking loosely, and undermining the very institutions, such as the judiciary, which he's supposed to be supporting."
Mr Hutomo himself could still get away. Police spokesmen gave out conflicting messages as to whether they had actually received a formal arrest order, and if there was legal room for them to act. His detention might also provoke more violence rather than bring an immediate end to terror attacks like Wednesday's bombing of the Jakarta Stock Exchange, in which 15 people were killed.
But the arrest order does signal that Mr Wahid, weakened by continuing violence, does not intend to take the rough stuff lying down. "It shows he's got balls after all," said a Western diplomat. "I can't think of a better way to say it. We're relieved something's happening to stop the rot."
The President's latest woes began last week with the opening of the United Nations Millennium Summit and the announcement that four UN aid workers, three of them foreign, had been killed in Atambua, West Timor, an area nominally under the Government's control.
Since his return to Jakarta on Monday, he has been uncharacteristically silent, despite almost daily emergency ministerial meetings chaired by Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri. Commentators were already wondering by mid-week to what extent the President was being sidelined by events, and by the Vice-President and his Security Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Then came the bomb at the Jakarta Stock Exchange on Wednesday, a strike at the symbolic heart of the economy. The next day, Suharto once again refused to answer a summons to court to hear corruption charges, continuing a cycle of apparent impunity which has deeply frustrated many Indonesians.
Even Mr Wahid's call for the police and Attorney-General Marzuki Darusman to find the bombers without fear or favour failed to reassure the public, given the police's dismal failure to arrest anyone for a series of bomb attacks and communal killings in recent months. Now Mr Wahid has unashamedly played to the gallery. But this would not be the first time a bold statement by the President later took on unexpected meaning, or was revealed to lack any.
Most ordinary Indonesians blame the Suharto family for widespread corruption, and blame "dark forces" aligned to the Suharto siblings for the recent attacks. Few will care whether evidence exists to firmly charge and convict Mr Hutomo for anything, and gleeful surprise was obvious among ordinary people questioned.
Foreign opinion remains divided about whether to give Mr Wahid full marks in a battle of perception at home, when international outrage at the militia murders of UN staffers in West Timor remains high.
The implication behind the arrest of Mr Hutomo is that the Government believes he is somehow involved in the bomb attacks, and particularly in the disaster at the Stock Exchange.
Why might Mr Hutomo have felt motivated to sponsor such attacks? "It's a lot of spite and revenge," said an ordinary Indonesian, who believes that the spoiled children of the new order and their military or business cronies still have trouble accepting that the good old days are over.
If Mr Wahid has indeed taken the battle into the enemy camp, he is announcing a new phase in the country's political transition. But he is still a long way from victory.