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Geoff Forrester and R.J. May (eds), The Fall of Soeharto (Bathurst: Crawford House Publishing in association with Regime Change and Regime Maintenance in Asia and the Pacific Project and North Australia Research Unit, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, 1998), 261 pp., $29.95, ISBN 1 86333 168 9.
Edward Aspinall, Herb Feith and Berry van Klinken (eds), The Last Days of President Suharto (Clayton: Monash Asia Institute, 1999), 181 pp., $24.95, ISBN 0 7326 1175 X.
Arief Budiman, Barbara Hately and Damien Kingsbury (eds), Reformasi: Crisis and Change in Indonesia (Clayton: Monash Asia Institute, 1999) 410 pp., $24.95, ISBN 0 7326 11792.
For followers of Indonesian politics, 21 May 1998 represents a cataclysmic event. After 32 years of predicting, anticipating and hoping for a change in leadership in Indonesia, such an event at last occurred. On this day President Suharto resigned and ended a reign during which the Indonesian economy had grown at a rapid rate while the social and political freedoms of the people of Indonesia had been as consistently denied. For decades commentators (indeed many of those who have contributed to these volumes) had speculated and anticipated Suharto's resignation as national leader. However, so often had they been proved wrong that many learned to be wary with their predictions with the effect that up until the last minute commentators were still tentative-such had been Suharto's grip on power. Among these was journalist Patrick Walters,
President Suharto is finished. His 32 year old New Order regime is in its death throes. How much longer the Indonesian leader, 76, can cling to power cannot be foretold. It could be months. Possibly days. But, whatever happens in Indonesia during the next year, the...