The first round of voting in Indonesia's electoral pageant has revealed a wave of nostalgia for the past. Golkar, the party of disgraced former leader Suharto, came out on top in national parliamentary elections in early April. Days after the results were announced, Golkar picked Mr. Wiranto, a former defense minister, as its presidential nominee. The choice is controversial: Not only is the former general a stalwart of the Suharto regime, but he is widely viewed as complicit in massive human rights violations by the Indonesian military. The country's apparent readiness to embrace a party that represents so much of its discredited past speaks volumes about its hopes for the future.

Golkar, or Golongan Karya, was set up in 1964 by Suharto to provide a ruling framework. When he fell from power in 1998, the party also collapsed. Since then, it has been punished by corruption scandals, yet it has managed to rebuild and reclaim its role as a force in Indonesian politics. In parliamentary elections held April 5, Golkar emerged as the leading party in the legislature. Most recent tallies give the party 21.1 percent of the vote, topping the Indonesian Party of Struggle (PDI-P) of President Megawati Sukarnoputri, which took 19.5 percent. Impeached former President Abdurrahman Wahid's Nation Awakening Party came in third with 12 percent.

The strong showing bodes well for Golkar's presidential candidate in the next round of voting, which will be held in July (if no one wins 50 percent in that ballot, a runoff will be held in September). The presumptive nominee had been party chairman and speaker of the House Akbar Tandjung. But charges -- eventually dropped -- that he embezzled nearly $4.6 million of taxpayer funds for the party tarnished his image. Mr. Wiranto, a former personal assistant to Suharto, has portrayed himself, in stark contrast to Ms. Megawati, as a can-do leader capable of uniting the country. He is remembered as the man who was offered the presidency when Suharto stood down, but instead passed it on to the vice president, Mr. B.J. Habibie.