Today, Indonesia has its first direct presidential election. What the electioneering has shown, thus far, is encouraging. The parliamentary elections last month were hard fought and had among the most complicated electoral instructions ever seen. But no one has complained about the results or the organisation of the polls.
In fact, although democratic theory usually does not place emphasis on party-building, to me, the best evidence of democratic maturity in Indonesia appears to be the extent to which real interests are being filtered through and into party organisation.
The Golkar party has, in an extraordinarily skilful way, converted Suharto's authoritarian state-serving machine into a well-rooted and geographically dispersed outfit.
The Islamic Union advises on Muslim interests, affecting several parties. There are lots of parties, but there is a tendency towards consolidation.
It is not fanciful to see Indonesia moving towards a three- or four-party nation, with shifting coalitions, as interests and events evolve.
Indonesia is said to be one of the world's most corrupt countries, and everyone has his or her own evidence of this.
But this election appears relatively clean - by anybody's standards.