Page 78 - SCANDAL AND DEMOCRACY

Suharto’s Fall 63

were rife that if Prabowo replaced Wiranto, there would be a Tiananmen Square–style
crackdown on the students.
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Within hours of Wiranto’s warning, the country witnessed a turn of events few
could have imagined. On May 19, thousands of students, escorted by soldiers, poured
through the gates of the parliamentary compound in downtown Jakarta and occu-
pied the main buildings. Legislators found themselves unable to leave. One observer
described “extraordinary, dream-like scenes” of thousands of angry students holding
sit-ins, waving protest banners, and dancing to rude anti-Suharto songs in a place that
normally functioned as “a political temple used to worship Mr. Suharto.” At the end
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of the day, however, the students left peacefully, riding buses presumably provided by
the military.
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During one tense moment, Kopassus soldiers loyal to Prabowo drove into the
compound, looking uncomfortable as students hugged them and handed out roses.
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Despite their submission to these embraces, the Kopassus visit appeared to be a show
of force in the power struggle between Prabowo and Wiranto. Regular soldiers on
guard around parliament, for example, were wearing bullet-proof vests. Since the stu-
dents were not carrying guns, observed one journalist, “the vests suggest that some
general may [be] worr[ied] about an assault by rival army units.”
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That evening, Prabowo led military leaders to announce on television that they
had ordered troops to “defend the nation” against protesters. Throughout this
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broadcast, scrolling text warned viewers not to join the next day’s nationwide rallies
commemorating Indonesia’s independence movement. The opposition leader Amien
Rais also appeared, urging people to stay home. Significantly, Wiranto was not pres-
ent, though he issued a separate warning against more demonstrations, suggesting
an end to his tolerance of the student occupation. Finally, President Suharto himself
delivered a televised address, promising he would hold a new election and would not
run.
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Jakarta Loses Fear
These broadcasts had little eff ect. The next day, May 20, Jakarta residents swarmed
into the streets by the tens of thousands to demand Suharto’s resignation. For many,
participation stemmed from a belief that the army was bluffi ng with its wire bar-
ricades and tanks. Some hypothesized, however, that this boldness could lead to a
crackdown because the army might fi nd that mere threats no longer meant control.
“In other places in Asia,” Nicholas Kristof added, “soldiers have often showed a mea-
sure of camaraderie with students shortly before shooting them.” Kristof nevertheless
concluded, “Almost by the hour, the fear of Mr. Suharto and his generals has been

draining away in Indonesia. . . . The bottom line is that for the first time in decades the
Indonesian government seems more afraid of the people than they are of it.”
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Back at parliament, students, now numbering nearly fifteen thousand, again
flooded through the gates. Reporters allowed in to cover this unprecedented event
described the students as having the run of the buildings, turning the place into what
one called “an Indonesian version of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. during spring break.”
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One side of a building became a “Democracy Wall” covered with reformasi posters
and slogans. The students also took turns at the podium of the main chamber doing
comic impersonations of national leaders, including Wiranto and Harmoko. Outside
the buildings, the atmosphere was even more raucous. According to one report, stu-
dents “pranced atop the broad green roof and carried a coffin through the grounds,
chanting, ‘Suharto is dead!’”
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