HONG KONG -- As the campaign for the triple-tiered Indonesian general election gets under way, the world's fourth-largest nation is displaying its democratic aspirations. It is also giving its weak administrative structure a severe test.
Inevitably, much analytical attention is being devoted to the personal political prospects that will overhang the voting. Will the PDIP, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, repeat its 1999 success when it garnered 34 percent of the parliamentary vote? Will it be able to propel its leader Megawati Sukarnoputri into a full five-year term as president?
Or will widespread disillusion with Megawati and the PDIP result in Golkar, the party that once buttressed former President Suharto's authoritarian rule, staging a comeback? Will Megawati be able to retain the presidency only if she forms an alliance with a Golkar vice president? Or will other personalities somehow eventually emerge to lead the nation?