Indonesia

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- After 32 years of unchallenged rule, President Suharto, Asia's longest lasting leader, still is in power but is struggling to retain control in a nation where many regard him as the problem, not the solution.Although he is expected to be re-elected in March to a seventh five-year term, opponents are openly defying him and calling for his resignation. That is the first time that has happened since he seized power.Yesterday, stores had reopened but police remained on the streets of a town in eastern Java, two days after riots erupted over increased food prices brought on by the nation's economic crisis.

WHY ON earth should anyone in Maryland pay attention to faraway Indonesia? Because that archipelago of 13,000 islands spread between Asia and Australia is the world's fourth most populous - and largest Muslim - country. For years now, this extraordinary, diverse nation - its various ethnic groups speak 300 languages - has experienced turmoil and political stress. This week, its democratically elected president was forced aside. Power was transferred to the vice president, Megawati Sukarnoputri.

THE MOSTLY peaceful revolution in the streets of Indonesia in May 1998 may turn into one of democracy's greatest success stories, although it faces obstacles aplenty.The artful political contraption known as the People's Consultative Assembly did not merely mask the retention of power by the army clique around General Wiranto and the Golkar Party of the fallen dictator Suharto. Many Indonesians feared it would.Nor did it hand executive power to the election plurality winner, Megawati Sukarnoputri, the opaque heroine of the impoverished and daughter of the founder of independence, Sukarno.

SAMARINDA, Indonesia -- Borneo is burning again.Just months after blazes in Indonesia sent a devastating cloud of smoke across much of Southeast Asia, flames have blanketed )) much of the island's drought-stricken east coast with a haze so thick that planes can land only a few hours a day and visibility so poor that boat captains cannot navigate the rivers.The effect is surreal here along the equator. Children kick soccer balls through piles of fallen leaves as though it were autumn -- a season that doesn't exist on Borneo.

SINGAPORE - President Bush arrived today in Bali, Indonesia, the site of a devastating attack one year ago, to reassure leaders of the world's largest Muslim nation that his global war on terrorism is not a war on Islam. Amid extraordinary security, Bush will spend just 3 1/2 hours in Bali, where a bombing of a nightclub killed 202 people. He is expected to praise Prime Minister Megawati Sukarnoputri's crackdown on terrorists while emphasizing the need for Indonesia to remain on a moderate, democratic path despite internal threats from Islamic militants.

THE THIRD TIME that President Suharto promised the International Monetary Fund to make economic reforms, he may have meant it.Twice before, Indonesia's elderly dictator agreed to close insolvent banks and end cartels and monopolies enjoyed by his family, if the IMF and rich countries would lend money to cover $74 billion in private-sector international debts.Twice he reneged, made his government more crony-infested and pushed his daughter Siti Hardijanti Rukmana (better known as Tutut) forward as heir apparent.

THE MEETING of the People's Consultative Assembly of Indonesia, starting today, is the last chance President Suharto has to commit his nation to reforms to end its economic crisis, meet International Monetary Fund requirements, diminish his family's stranglehold on the national wealth and promise the people a better future. There is scant hope that he will.When the assembly winds up March 11, "electing" the military dictator to a sixth term as president and presumably his anti-reform crony, B. Jusuf Habibie, as vice president, it may be too late.

LIKE WATERGATE, this may turn out to be a campaign scandal with more legs than a spider. President Clinton and his entourage, including the Democratic National Committee, have received contributions of up to $5 million through persons associated with a multi-billion-dollar Indonesian banking conglomerate, the Lippo Group.Taken even in its best light, this may just be another result -- though one involving foreign interests -- of a campaign-financing system loaded with big bucks and soft money and ample avenues for corruption.

DILI, East Timor - An end to years of tragedy in this tiny province has never seemed so close. It has also never seemed so far.After more than two decades of bloody rule, Indonesia's foreign minister suddenly announced late last month that his country might consider independence for the impoverished half-island.But, as United Nations-sponsored talks on East Timor's future continued Monday in New York, the people of the mountain territory appear increasingly divided.Civilian militias who have armed themselves and vowed to defend East Timor's link with Indonesia are accused in the recent deaths of several unarmed civilians.

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- In the latest of a series of transportation disasters in Indonesia, a passenger airliner slammed into the ground yesterday on landing at the city of Yogyakarta and burst into flames, killing at least 21 people and leaving many badly injured. Survivors said the plane shuddered before landing, hit the ground with a hard jolt and slid off the end of the runway into a rice field, filling with smoke and darkness before erupting in flames and explosions. The cause of the accident was unclear.