When President Abdurrahman Wahid announced yesterday that he had ordered the arrest of Mr "Tommy" Suharto, the youngest son of the former Indonesian dictator, it confirmed for many people what ministers had been intimating for weeks.
The popular view is that Gen Suharto, his family and his cronies, including some in the armed forces, are bent on destroying the country because voters will not let them rule again.
No one has produced any proof of a grand conspiracy but with Indonesia spiralling into chaos on many different fronts it is hard to discount reports that Gen Suharto is once again pulling strings.
It is hard to gauge which is the most serious crisis facing Mr Wahid. Most international attention is focused on West Timor and how the authorities are going to rein in the pro-Jakarta militias terrorising more than 100,000 refugees.
Yesterday the newly appointed Defence Minister, Mr Mahfud, caused further international consternation when he accused foreign countries of deliberately stirring up trouble in the Indonesian half of the island.
But Timor is a long way from Jakarta and few people in the capital care much about either the East or West Timorese. Officials are most concerned about the growing bombing campaign in the capital, which looks like a professional terrorist operation.
"If Jakarta is caught up in a state of permanent panic then we are in serious trouble," a senior finance ministry official said.
After Wednesday's bomb at the stock exchange, which killed 15 people and injured more than 30, many expect it is only a matter of time before the next blast, because Mr Tommy Suharto's arrest is unlikely to tame the terrorists. "If anything it will make matters worse," said Mr Arbi Sanit, a political analyst.
"It will make the old man [Gen Suharto] more angry and so provoke him into doing something even worse than what we have seen already."
But Mr Wahid is equally damned in the eyes of the public if he does nothing. One of his closest advisers said the President was well aware of his dilemma. "However, he is determined to cut the head off the snake before it jumps up and really bites him in the testicles," he said.
Mr Mahfud said the only way to end the bombing might be to end the corruption trial of Gen Suharto. Mr Wahid could not do this, because he would lose enormous political support if he caved in before the judges have even decided whether the former general is fit to stand trial.
Meanwhile, Mr Wahid is also preoccupied with Aceh, where the separatists and the security forces have signed an agreement not to launch offensive operations so that the politicians can pave the way for negotiations. In fact, more than 60 people have been killed in fighting in the past fortnight alone.
Then there is the Moluccas. Sectarian fighting between Christians and Muslims has subsided in recent weeks, but no one expects this to last, and there are no signs of the state of civil emergency being lifted, let alone meaningful steps towards reaching a permanent end to the 20-month conflict.
Most people in Java have also forgotten about Papua, formerly known as Irian Jaya. In recent weeks the security forces have taken a much less lenient attitude towards Papuans wanting to peacefully express their separatist sentiments. The police chief has banned the pro-independence flag being flown in some areas, despite Mr Wahid permitting it, and his officers have killed several people who have refused to lower it.
Sustained economic recovery is proving just as difficult. While the current economic ministers seem to be more competent than those they replaced last month, there has been little progress on such matters as debt restructuring and selling the assets of bankrupt companies.
Only the artificial boost from high oil prices saves Indonesia's weaknesses from being starkly exposed. Mr Wahid said yesterday that it was "time to take stern action" to stop the rot, but gave no indication how he would do it, and few expect to see peace and prosperity any time soon.
Mr Hutomo Mandala Putra, or "Tommy", is the youngest, and reputedly the favourite of Gen Suharto's three sons. At 37, the gambling and car-racing aficionado was estimated by Time magazine last year to be worth $800 million.
Some 5,000 US marines arrived off the coast of East Timor to carry out humanitarian work. "There are 5,000 marines in four warships off the coast," Col Brynjar Nymo, spokesman for the UN peacekeeping forces in East Timor, said in the capital, Dili.