Early Thoughts on the Violence of May 13 and 14, 1998 in Jakarta

Abstract

The artless confession in this news magazine, speaking to and about the middle class, helps in understanding the course of events that led up to the resignation of President Suharto. By May 1998 Indonesia had shared in the economic difficulties of East Asia for ten months, and though a great many people were feeling its effects and there was much political discontent, no one seemed to have anticipated Suharto's resignation. After it took place, however, people in Jakarta, though initially surprised, thought it was easily explicable. Suharto left office after two violent incidents. Students, who had originally demonstrated against the rise in prices that accompanied the fall in value of the rupiah had begun to demand Reformasi (Reform), sometimes in effect taking up the vocabulary of the IMF when they asked for transparency which, for a while, was an important word of political rhetoric.' Students at the private