Suharto's Puppet Show

Indonesians sometimes view their political power struggles as a kind of wayang, the traditional all-night puppet show in which the villains die at dawn. For four main players in President Suharto's government, dawn finally came last week. All were generals, and two of them--Ali Murtopo and Sudjono Humardani--were members of the hated Aspri, the influential kitchen cabinet. One non-Aspri was General Sutomo Yuwono, head of the internal intelligence agency. The other was General Sumitro, boss of the security force Kopkamtib. Suharto stripped him of the Kopkamtib command and took personal charge of the secret police.

Not Mere Puppets. Suharto's moves cut short political maneuvering by two dangerous rivals who had helped him topple former Dictator Sukarno in 1966. Roly-poly Sumitro, a golfing partner ("My stomach is my handicap") of the President, had sought to build up a following with students. When he was reported as favoring "new national leadership," Sumitro immediately denied that he had ever thought of calling for Suharto's replacement. But to political observers it looked like a slip 'twixt cup and coup. After last month's student riots during Japanese Premier Kakuei Tanaka's visit to Jakarta, Sumitro cracked heads with such vengeance (800 arrested and nine publications closed) that he seemed to be attempting to embarrass Suharto by exaggerating the extent of the opposition.

General Murtopo, meanwhile, was muttering about the laxity of law and order, warning student rebels that in the future they would "have to step over my dead body." With these hard-line actions, both generals seemed to be trying to line up support from conservative elements in the military who were appalled at the students' violent behavior.

By gathering power into his own hands, Suharto temporarily resolved several of his political woes. His disbanding of the Aspri was a crowd-pleasing response to student protests that his aides were corrupt. But the villains of Suharto's wayang are not mere puppets. Each of the four wily generals is potentially a powerful political figure. They may now try to write a different scenario for the next Indonesian puppet show.

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