The forces of darkness are ready, waiting in the wings
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1184903,00.html
In Asia's year of elections, Indonesian democracy is hanging by a
thread
Martin Jacques
Saturday April 3, 2004
The Guardian
This is Asia's great year of elections. Taiwan's has already taken
place, throwing the country into the worst turmoil for decades; the
Philippines, Indonesia and India lie ahead. Altogether, over 1.3
billion people will have had the opportunity to vote. For India,
elections are a well-established practice, for Taiwan and the
Philippines they are rather more novel, for Indonesia they are an
almost entirely new experience. In its 53-year history of
independence, Indonesia has only voted in free elections twice. On
Monday it will vote in the country's parliamentary elections. And, as
if to make up for the democratic starvation, will vote again in the
presidential elections in June.
Martin Jacques
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=18510aff.0312040126.11733e9b%40posting.google.com
.
|
