Medan, meaning battlefield

Blinds flapping from shattered windows, the looted car showroom is a telling symbol of the fractured order of President Suharto's long and p...

Blinds flapping from shattered windows, the looted car showroom is a telling symbol of the fractured order of President Suharto8217;s long and painful political dotage. But the rioters8217; first target was the car dealership. It peddles cars made by Suharto8217;s son, Hutomo quot;Tommyquot; Mandala.

Launched as a symbol of national pride, a vehicle hailed by Asia8217;s longest-serving ruler as the quot;people8217;s carquot; has become instead an emblem of the crony capitalism blamed for Indonesia8217;s gravest economic and political crisis in 30 years. The assault on the Timor dealership in Medan began nearly a week of violence that has left buildings gutted, dozens dead and thousands of troops encamped in and around this city of nearly 2 million in northern Sumatra. In Indonesian, Medan means quot;battlefieldquot;.

After months of student-led protest across the country, the turmoil in Medan gave force to a growing chorus of voices warning President Suharto to open up a sclerotic political system or reap a whirlwind of chaos. The fall of hispredecessor, President Sukarno, was accompanied by an orgy of bloodletting against alleged communists. Once again pressure for change is growing. Indonesia8217;s 10 million Protestants joined a 25 million-strong Scores of other groups in demanding immediate political and economic reform. Even the military has embraced at least the rhetoric of change.

The mayhem in Medan has made a mockery of stage-managed shows of popular support for the 76-year-old president, which climaxed in March when a handpicked assembly, claiming to represent the country8217;s 200 million people, quot;re-electedquot; him for a seventh five-year term.

But the violence has also unnerved activists in the vanguard of protest. Campus leaders were struggling to understand how their crusade against the old order turned into violence against ethnic Chinese.

Anti-Chinese sentiment has been a constant of Indonesian life since the Dutch colonial period. Indonesia8217;s economic woes have now inflamed the passions. With President Suharto and his family far awayin Jakarta, the Chinese make a vulnerable target.

In Medan, campus leaders sought to refocus the anger. The University of North Sumatra, shut down during the unrest, reopened with a rally against the government. Several hundred students marched with a black banner calling for Suharto s trial. A protest song reviled him as the quot;son of Satanquot;.

Story continues below this ad

quot;Ordinary people don8217;t understand,quot; said one student, Panjung. quot;They just look at everything from an economic point of view. They want goods and they see the Chinese have them.quot; Students deny involvement in the riots and accuse the government of using, and even fomenting, the unrest to discredit their cause. The trigger for the worst looting followed an abrupt announcement by the government that it would raise fuel prices. To try to avoid clashes fired by between students, soldiers rushed into the city to restore order, a special hotline has been set up with the university. Some activists are urging students to keep their rallies on-campus until tension abates.Rosmery warns protesters: quot;Be careful, be careful. There are people who want to only confuse the situation.quot;

Others relish the turmoil. quot;It was a new experience for our generation,quot;said Edy Ikhsan. quot;We are not afraid any more. We see that Suharto cannot solve our problems8230; he is the problem.quot; The wreckage at the Timor car showroom shows just how messy the problem has become. Repair bills, though, will go to the local Chinese businessman who owns the shops.