THERE is an awful feeling of deja vu about the events in Jakarta - and not only in the deaths and the street violence. When President Bacharuddin Habibie instructed the armed forces to take 'firm measures' to control the situation it could have been the voice of former president Suharto. Equally, the warning from the Muslim leader, Amien Rais, that armed forces chief General Wiranto had to quit if the armed forces were to retain the people's goodwill reawakened fears of a major civilian-military split.
As Australian Prime Minister John Howard noted, President Habibie had surprised many people with what he appeared to have done in the six months since the fall of Mr Suharto. But the wave of events shows how little has actually been resolved.
In a sense that is not surprising given the length of Mr Suharto's rule and the way he moulded Indonesia. President Habibie, and his country, need time. But as is plain from this week's events, time is something which the students and other opposition groups are not going to give the Government and the Army.
It may be that Mr Habibie feels himself in no position to deliver a political package which would satisfy the demonstrators, particularly now that the division between political activists and the big Muslim groups, on one side, and the Army and the President on the other has grown alarmingly in the past few days.
Mr Rais said yesterday the image of the armed forces had reached a nadir. But without the Army observing at least a neutral stance there is little chance of real political progress in Indonesia.
The week's decisions on holding elections next year and on a corruption probe into Mr Suharto were welcome. But the fact that President Habibie has not been able - or willing - to get the military to vacate its seats in parliament is proof that some things from the Suharto era are still not susceptible to change. And if the situation continues to develop into a spiral of daily violence, the position of the Army as the only element that can restore order will inevitably be reinforced.
