BY MAURICE WILLIAMS, NANCY ROSENSTOCK, AND AL DUNCAN
Indonesian president Suharto announced his resignation May 21 under the mounting pressure of tens of thousands of workers, students, and others who converged on the parliament the day before demanding his ouster. Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated around the country May 20 to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the start of the country's independence struggle against Dutch colonial rule, as they stood up to the government's attempts to impose austerity measures to protect the profits of the domestic and foreign capitalists.

Suharto handed over his office to the vice president Jusuf Habibie, just hours after officials of the International Monetary Fund announced they were rescinding a $43 billion "bailout" loan arrangement. Suharto said Habibie, a longtime friend and associate, would serve the remainder of the presidential term, but some protesters on the streets declared this was unacceptable and they would continue to demonstrate if that occurred.

Meanwhile, some 15,000 students had occupied Indonesia's parliament for three days, intensifying their demands for Suharto to step down. The occupation of the legislative building took place despite the deployment of some 150,000 troops around Jakarta. Helicopters whirled overhead and tanks lined up beside coiled wire and wooden barricades to block other protesters from entering the capital. "Hang, hang, hang Suharto," the students chanted on the first day of the occupation. "Hang Suharto and all his family!"

In an attempt to defuse the crisis, Suharto hinted that he would have "no problem" resigning - after organizing new elections - and promised a cabinet shuffle. But he also threatened military action. "What we have to think about is whether with my withdrawal the current situation can be resolved," Suharto said on national television May 19. He implied that his ouster could provoke "sharper confrontations, perhaps leading to bloodshed, or perhaps even ... civil war." A few days earlier, the former Indonesian president was forced to cancel price increases in fuel and electricity that had triggered an explosion of protests throughout the country.

Amien Rais, leader of Muhammadiyah, an "Islamic" social and education group with more than 25 million members, called Suharto's plan "unrealistic," while vowing to push for more protests. Rais, one of the most prominent bourgeois opposition politicians, went on television at the last minute to call off the May 20 rally in Jakarta that had been projected to attract 1 million people. Referring to the 1989 massacre of hundreds of students by Chinese troops in Beijing, Rais stated, "An army general [told me] he doesn't care at all if a `Tiananmen accident'" occurred in Jakarta.

Rais did address the students occupying parliament May 20, while up to 500,000 people demonstrated in Yogyakarta. Protests also took place in at least half a dozen other cities that day.

Workers respond to economic crisis
The social crisis choking Indonesia was triggered by the wave of currency devaluations in the region that unfolded last July. The Indonesian rupiah has plummeted 80 percent since then and inflation has soared. The cheapened currency has crippled most businesses, while capitalists attempt to compensate for sagging profits by doubling and tripling prices of goods across the country.

Indonesia, the world's fourth-largest country with more than 200 million people, faces a massive default in loans, with enterprises owing a foreign debt totaling $137 billion. Foreign banks have minimized relations with Indonesian banks, local lending has nearly halted, and business transactions are paralyzed.

Washington engineered the $43 billion "bailout" program of loans through the International Monetary Fund to guarantee profits for international capitalist investors. The agreement with Jakarta mandates spending cuts on social programs, closing down insolvent banks, and allowing foreign investors to take over financial institutions. Other measures include industrial "restructuring" that shuts down unprofitable corporations, eliminating jobs.

More than 8 million workers have lost their jobs and millions more may also be on the streets. Peasants and farm workers are being driven off the land, with nearly 500,000 expected to enter Jakarta.

Although information on workers' struggles is extremely scant in the big-business press, it's clear the political ferment is not limited to students. An article in the Washington Post, for instance, mentions in passing a May 12 march to the IMF office in Jakarta called by an "illegal" trade union to demand the delay of scheduled loan installments under the so-called bailout scheme. And according to a local journalist, when troops assaulted student protesters in Medan, workers came to the university to support them.

Students have organized daily protests in response to the economic crisis. When the regime imposed a 70 percent increase in fuel and electricity prices, as demanded by the IMF, that move exacerbated workers' discontent into widespread anger. Mass protests erupted into rioting May 13, after six student protesters were killed by troops the day before. More than 500 people died in the unrest.

The bourgeois press has played up an element of scapegoating of those of Chinese descent, a disproportionate number of whom are part of the ruling class. Banks and shops owned by Chinese merchants were destroyed, including the home of Chinese billionaire Liem Sioe Liong, one of Suharto's closest associates.

The rebellion, which the capitalist media attempted to smear as "looting," targeted the regime, as thousands of people trashed properties of Suharto's relatives and associates. On May 14, for example, protesters broke into the showroom of a car company owned by Suharto's son, dragged out office furniture and tires, created a huge bonfire in the middle of the street, and then rolled out new Cakra cars and torched them. They also gutted the office of the government Social Affairs department headed by the president's daughter, Siti Hardijanti Rukmana.

"They're attacking the businesses of the children of the president," an office clerk told the Washington Post. "We can't go directly to the headquarters, so we're attacking his branches."

The next day Suharto canceled the price hikes "to alleviate the burden on the people at this time of crisis," Mines and Energy Minister Kuntoro Mangkusubroto announced.

Divisions have developed in the military over how to contain the turmoil. In some cases, protesters mingle with rank-and-file soldiers. During the May 14 actions, teenagers were hitching rides on military vehicles, according to the New York Times. That same day a group of marines marched with the demonstrators and at one point shoving and shouting broke out between the cops and soldiers who tried to protect the protesters.

As this unfolded several ruling figures in Indonesia, including once-loyal supporters, broke with Suharto. Legislators belonging to Suharto's ruling Golkar party suggested he step down by June 8. "For the unity of the nation, the president should wisely take the decision to resign," declared Speaker of the House Harmoko on state- prepared national television May 18. Harmoko, who is also chairman of Golkar, was a longtime Suharto loyalist and supporter.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Harmoko's move followed a meeting on May 17 involving senior military officials who voiced support for removing Suharto from power.

A layer of the U.S. ruling-class figures also joined the chorus for the ouster of Suharto. "President Suharto has got to go," said U.S. senator John Kerry during a May 18 meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The editors of the New York Times called for Suharto to "set in motion a fully democratic transition and then resign."

U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright implied a similar view in a May 20 speech at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. "President Suharto has given much to his country over the past 30 years," she said. Now he should act to "preserve his legacy."

Suharto came to power in 1965 after organizing a bloodbath of at least 500,000 workers and peasants.

Meanwhile, Washington is keeping military power at hand. Clinton administration officials said the U.S. military was prepared to use troops, helicopters, and Navy ships for a "rescue" mission for U.S. citizens if airports in Jakarta are shut down.

Three amphibious ships, helicopters, and 10,600 U.S. GIs have traveled to the region for military exercises with nearby Thailand. "They are prepared and they do have contingency plans," said Marine Corps commander Gen. Charles Krulak.

The Australian imperialists are also positioning for possible military intervention with three frigates, two patrol boats, eight C-130 Hercules planes, a Boeing 707 and 250 RAAF, and troops ready for action.  
 
 
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