Members of Indonesia's influential Chinese community have, over the weekend, been openly celebrating the advent of the lunar New Year in Jakarta. That they have been able to do so marks a small step towards tolerance in a country where ethnic tensions threaten to destroy the state's integrity. Such celebrations would have been impossible in the days of Gen Suharto's regime. It is less than two years since Chinese homes and businesses in the Indonesian capital were destroyed in a convulsion of racist violence. Indonesian Chinese still suffer from political and cultural disabilities imposed by the state but the administration of President Abdurrahman Wahid is moving the world's fourth most populous country in the direction of tolerance and democracy.
For Indonesia to survive, let alone prosper, as a unitary state this process must continue. To do so President Wahid and his supporters must have the courage to face down anti-democratic opposition from within the country's power structures. Indonesia is now at a crucial juncture in its progress towards democracy. The National Human Rights Commission has recommended that the Co-ordinating Minister for Security and Political Affairs, Gen Wiranto, should, along with five other generals, face prosecution in connection with the violence which devastated East Timor last summer.
President Wahid has called on Gen Wiranto to resign. The General has refused to do so and faces being dismissed. In the meantime rumours of an impending coup d'etat have swept the country. An ambiguous statement from the army commander Gen Tyasno Sudarto has done little to help the situation. "I guarantee" Gen Sudarto said, "that as an institution the army will not launch a coup." But an entire army "as an institution" seldom launches military coups In most cases they take place at the behest of groups of dissatisfied and impatient officers and there is little doubt that cabals within the armed forces still support Gen Wiranto.
Those who back Gen Wiranto's refusal to resign argue that to do so would constitute an admission of guilt. The patent sophistry of this argument may disguise a hankering for dictatorship. President Wahid has the right to chose his own cabinet and when he asks a minister to resign his orders, as any General ought to know, should be obeyed. Those tempted by the prospect of military intervention should realise that such a course would lead to Indonesia's political and financial isolation as well as to internal turmoil. The charges laid against Gen Wiranto and his associates are of such magnitude that his instant resignation is not only warranted but is a prerequisite for Indonesia's continued advancement. On the other hand, as his supporters demand, Gen Wiranto should, in the best traditions of democracy, be regarded as innocent until proved guilty. He must be tried as an ordinary citizen and not while he continues to hold the power of co-ordinating security and political affairs.