Chaos, fear reign
By Jeff Barrus
in IndonesiaLAST week, the U.S. State Department began evacuating American citizens from Indonesia after three days of rioting in Jakarta and several provincial cities. Around 300 people died in Jakarta, many of them looters who burned to death making second and third trips into flaming shopping malls.
I watched the proceedings, in Indonesia, on the evening news. There was a sea of shirtless boys ripping over metal gates and smashing windows to get at TV sets and shoes. One man pushed a refrigerator on wheels through the anarchy in the streets.
Thirty kilometers west of the city's center, rioters attacked a maternity hospital causing mothers to flee with their newborns. The house of the richest man in Indonesia, Liem Sioe Liong, was burned to the ground.
I live in the city of Malang, in East Java, more than 400 miles from Jakarta. Here, there are daily student demonstrations but thus far no rioting.
Still, people are worried, especially the ethnic Chinese minority which dominates the commerce of the country. Several shopping centers have been closed.
In Surabaya, which is only two hours away by bus, the rioters sought out the shops and homes of ethnic Chinese. That scared people here.
At the crowded immigration office, several Chinese families are disguised in clothing that would have been comical under other circumstances. The men wear the white topi of Islam on their heads and their wives wear the head veil called a jilbab, clumsily fastened under their chins. (There are Chinese Muslims in the country, but the overwhelming majority of ethnic Chinese are Christian.)
The downtown storefronts, shut up like garage doors, are plastered with hastily written banners that say "pro reformasi" and "toko Islam" (Islamic-owned shop).
The Jakarta Post reported that some shopkeepers were laying prayer rugs, the ones with colorful depictions of Mecca on them, in front of their stores. At around $2, they are cheap protection, if they work.
If not, the soldiers are still out. A few weeks ago they were only in front of the largest banks sitting in bored pairs.
Now there are groups of six of them stationed in front of every bank and shopping center. They stand on the steps of the closed banks wearing thick, black vests over their combat fatigues, shouldering their sub-machine guns, beneath the red-and-white Indonesian flag flying at half-staff.
In many of President Suharto's statements, there was a hubris worthy of Caligula. He began a "Love the Rupiah" campaign similar to "Thumbs Up, Hawaii" to convince ordinary people they can stabilize exchange rates by trading dollars for rupiah and buying more local products.
Then, to stop inflation, he raised interest rates to pull rupiah out of circulation. Right now, you can get interest rates around 60 percent on a one-month CD, though not many people have enough confidence in the banks to take the gamble.
He told the students if they don't return to class, the nation's development will suffer and foreigners will come in to take their jobs. He pretended that the three or four dozen anti-government activists who were kidnapped and tortured don't exist.
In every store in the nation, his picture -- there by law -- bares the same humble expression. The third or fourth richest man in the world, a man with a vast collection of Harley Davidson motorcycles, putting on the face of a becak (trishaw) driver.
Even as they demanded that he step down, which he did, there are many who believe the good raja, who has ruled for 32 years, has been brought low by his ministers and his childrens' greed.
The island of Java alone is 120 times larger than Oahu with a population 150 times greater. Here, living with Indonesians, problems don't seem to have simple solutions.
Jeff Barrus, former editor of Hawaii Business magazine,
now lives in Indonesia.