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Journalism of Courage
JAKARTA, MARCH 1: Indonesian President Suharto’s son said that the ageing leader will not run for an eighth term in 2003, a news report said today. Suharto, who has ruled for 32 years, opened a special Assembly today that is almost certain to re-elect him for a seventh five-year term. Suharto is running unopposed.
The Jakarta Post newspaper quoted the President’s son Bambang as saying Suharto would call it quits in five years or his family would force him to step down. “I think father has no intention of fighting the 2003 Presidential election,” Bambang was quoted as saying. “The decision is final. If father later accepts his renomination, we (his children) will prevent him from being elected.”
Suharto rose to power in 1966 after putting down an abortive coup the year before, replacing Indonesia’s first President, Sukarno. Suharto was first elected President by a consultative Assembly in 1968 and is now Asia’s longest serving leader.
The 77-year-old President has no clear successor, and Indonesiaand financial markets were gripped recently by wild rumours that he was seriously ill, even that he had died, after doctors ordered him to rest following an arduous overseas trip in December. Suharto has apparently recovered, but there still is some speculation that he is getting too old to lead his sprawling nation out of its worst economic crisis in decades.
