JAKARTA, February 2: Crisis-wrecked Indonesia began the countdown to next month's selection of President and Vice-President, with veteran leader Eduardo Suharto facing unprecedented pressure to step aside. Opposition figures shattered old taboos which shielded the 76-year-old Suharto from dissent by openly blaming him for the country's economic tailspin and demanding a replacement to pull the nation of more than 200 million people from the crisis.``Accompanying political reforms are definitely necessary now, and I just hope the government realises this,'' said Tarto Sudiro, a former MP loyal to ousted Opposition Indonesian Democracy Party (PDI) leader Megawati Sukarnoputri. Measures to address the shortcomings of the country's economy were necessary, but political reforms and a fresh leadership would inject the ``vigour'' essential for Indonesians to battle the crisis, Sudiro said.
``Thirty years of economic growth under Suharto did not come with a commensurate level of political openness... just lookwhere we are now, back to square one.'' While Indonesia's economy barrelled along with high growth rates and rising prosperity for three decades until the onset of the crisis last July, political life has remained in the tight grip of the authorities.
Human rights activist and lawyer Luhut Pangaribuan said Indonesia needed widespread economic and political reforms plus a new leader to implement them.
``The current leadership is no longer capable of any innovative approach to bring the country out of its problem,'' Pangaribuan said.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
