01.48 people celebrating.... WAHID Q: How big a victory is this for the people of Indonesia? Oh, a very big, big, big victory RAIS He was a crook as a leader, er.. he was even a hypocrite 02.04 Accepting office/ Suharto effigy dragged on ground After 32 years as the absolute ruler of Indonesia, last week President Suharto was finally forced to concede that the end had come... WAHID Q. Do you have any sympathy.now for the President? A. Oh yes, who... who... who has no sympathy? We track the last days and hours as the dictator bowed out. GRAPHIX 02.36 TITLE.. May 21st 1998..GRAPHIX As dawn broke in Jakarta last Thursday, those close to the President and his family already knew later that morning Suharto would resign... 03.00 WAHID Q: Did you have a conversation with him? No, but I have a conversation with the daughter....she said at the time that..he will step down the next morning, that is this morning.. students clustering round TV 03.16 Just before 9am the students who had taken over Indonesia's National Parliament Building clustered around the television...they had sworn to continue this occupation here until Suharto was gone.. they knew that the President would shortly be addressing the nation...but maybe it was just another Cabinet reshuffle..the atmosphere was buzzing with rumours and anticipation that this might be the end of the leader they feared and despised.....but no-one was prepared to believe that Suharto was gone, until the words finally fell from his lips... 04.00 Suharto resigns I have decided to declare that I cease being the president of the Republic of Indonesia student leader Rama's reaction it was hard to fully comprehend at first that they'd won... singing.....Indonesian national anthem... 04.57 SARWONO I have to take off my hat to the students er.. for taking up er... such a... meaningful role for the country's future. students running around outside... crying as the news sank in, the euphoria mounted the dictator was gone...and thanks be to the God.... for some who had suffered and struggled so long for this moment in Indonesian history, it was all too much ...the dramatic end game played out so swiftly 06. 08 WAHID that after so much time, trying to haggle with him, trying to... have a kind of peaceful... surrender by him, then out of sudden... he announced that he was willing to... relinquish the Presidency. Q. How long have you waited.... for this moment? A. Oh.. many, many years.. Abdrachman Wahid heads up the largest Muslim movement in the country, the 30 million strong Nadlatul Ulama. WAHID Q. the moment... when the 6 students... were killed at Trisakti University, was that the moment... when President Suharto's days were numbered? A. Yes, if we look from hindsight, yes. 06.56 MARSILLAM SIMANDJUNTAK it triggered the whole movement, it doesn't say there was no movement before then. graphix 12TH MAY 1998 This is the start of the demonstration at Trisakti University...just nine days before the President would stand down...The President and the armed forces still believed then that the tried and true practices of brutally suppressing dissent could keep him in power...but someone somewhere high up badly miscalculated how to treat this one protest... 07.38 Marzuki Darusman .let's not always er...blame the foot soldiers you know. They may be ...they may have been er.....committing wrong acts, but it's....it's the top people that need to be ....also be ....be accountable for this. Demonstrations in the lead up to the Trisakti incident, the violence between the armed forces and students had been escalating around the country.. there were beatings, tear gas and rubber bullets, and in recent weeks student activists began to disappear, some reappearing with horrific tales of torture.. but until May 12th at Trisakti no student had been shot dead in Jakarta with live ammunition for making a political protest...it was however something they feared 08.29 Prabowo Q. A lot of young people are determined to go out on the streets and demand change. They want to know bottom line questions like.. will you shoot them? A. Er.. I mean it's not a black and white situation that you.. that you paint. We carry out dialogue.. we meet them face to face.. we discuss with them.. we try to.. we try to talk things out. Q. But if they remain unconvinced.. if they.. if they ... A. ... if they.. how could.. if they.. we are 200 million people. Q. If they defy you though ... A. .. we are 200 million people. Who.. who are "they"? We are a people's army.. we.. we will never go against our people. Q. But if a million people turn out on the streets? A. If a million people turns out on the street.. if.. let us.. let us see. 09.21 shootings... six young men were shot dead with live ammunition, some picked off by snipers, as the ran back into the university grounds....four have been identified as students from the TRISAKTI campus.. 09.51 RAMA PRADAMAT we don't have a gun, we have only idealism, ..we want a better chance in this country..we want a reformation...and I don't know what's wrong with that. And the military shoot ...shoot us with er..their bullet 10.05 MARZUKI DARUSMAN the standing order is that live bullets are only used when ordered by the superior, so the Armed Forces will just have to look into this...where did they go wrong Wiranto announcement The Chief of the armed forces, General Wiranto, went on television promising an Inquiry into how the killings happened... but the justice system in Indonesia is so discredited that this move failed to calm the mounting outrage at the killings.. 10.36 MULYA LUBIS if you are talking about judiciary, judiciary is the most ...not only the most weakest institutions, but the most corrupt institutions. There is what we call here 'Mafia Court' yeah? Q. Mafia Court? A. Mafia Court, yeah, er.... where everything can be bought, yeah...everything can be arranged, and one former Justice of the Supreme Courts gave an interview in one of our media, saying that over 50% of Indonesian judges are corrupt, and you can imagine what kind of judiciary we have under that circumstances. There is no hope for justice unless you have ...wealth and power. GRAPHIX May 13 1998 11.33 fires ablaze... The day after the shootings, Jakarta was on fire...a total of 4,000 shops, supermarkets, restaurants and workshops were burned down damaged or looted, 500 banks, and over a thousand houses were torched or vandalised including that of the richest man in Indonesia, one of Suharto's inner circle on cronies.. the value of the battered Indonesian currency plunged to even greater depths... over 400 bodies were found in the charred remains of burnt out supermarkets...the economic crisis has left over 4 million unemployed, impoverished and desperate in Jakarta...when the looting started they poured into the buildings like this and could not get out in time... only half of the bodies taken here to this university hospital could be identified by families looking for their relatives...Ani Hasibaun is a doctor at the hospital 12.54 ANI HASIBUAN .. some of them died because you know, they.. they.. they went into the supermarket and want to take everything, and the supermarket get burnt and they are trapped inside and they cannot go out and they died. But why they want to get.. to get in.. into the supermarket and take food and everything, because they have nothing. They want it because, you know, some.. so many people in Indonesia.. is too poor and they have nothing.. so.. but.. Suharto says nothing about that, until now. And I feel... I think many people feel that Suharto is responsible for what is happening. GRAPHIX May 15th 13.41 President Suharto returns.. President Suharto was away in Cairo when the Trisakti students were killed....3 days later he returned... ..there was no word of regret for their deaths....he'd issued an ambiguous statement that if he were no longer trusted, he'd lead the country from behind, and promised to enact political reform,..but it was very quickly made very clear that this was no offer to resign. over the week-end the students were gathering strength and support 14.13 RAMA PRAMADA Of course we will keep on fighting and fighting...We..we have started a long time ago, and er why we have to give stop now? Is there a compromise? Can you accept reform here with..if President Suharto stays in power?..does he have... President Suharto is not part of the solution..he is part of the problem Rama Pramada is one of the leaders of the student movement, he's a political science student at the University of Indonesia.. it would be wrong to say the student movement does not have its factions and even its petty jealousies among leadership figures, but its nevertheless remarkable for the unity they've maintained in the crisis.. part of the reason is that they have deliberately kept their stated goal simple and agreed...the immediate replacement of President Suharto with a leader committed to a program of political reform, whoever the various factions may prefer as an alternative President, their leaders are disciplined enough to keep that to themselves 15.18 RAMA PRAMADA Q. Who do you want to be President of Indonesia? A. Er.. we don't care with that. Er.. we are not a political parties.. we have no agenda er.. political agenda. Whoever er.. will be the leader, if they.. if they er.. do this er.. this system, we will support them.. 15.38 Student meeting Rama has organised a meeting with another student faction...although they don't tell us their agenda at the time...its to plan the occupation of the National Parliament...starting the very next day GRAPHIX May 18th 1998 16.10 Monday morning...10am Muslim leader Dr Amien Rais has been invited into the Parliament buildings to address a Committee of Indonesian Parliamentarians concerned with internal affairs... Amien Rais heads up Indonesia's second biggest Muslim organisation, the Mohamediya movement, with 27 million members... At the end of last year he put himself forward as an alternative Presidential candidate....as the economic and political crisis has deepened Rais has emerged as one of the President's most outspoken critics Suharto, he says, pointing disparagingly to the Presidentís portrait, has to go, and the sooner the better... 16.55 AMIEN RAIS at least 5 years ago, I... already appealed to this nation to discuss about... the succession of.. the national leadership. And we think that Suharto.. had to stand down, you know... because I just... didn't believe him. He was a crook as a leader, he was even a hypocrite, if I may say so. I'm very sorry to... to say something very.... blunt about my leader. 17.28 Its strong stuff for the Indonesian parliamentarians, who all owe their jobs to the fact they've kept on good terms with President Suharto.... While they too know that Suharto's days are numbered, most of the questions thrown to Amien Rais, reject his view that now is the time for change but even as they debate the issue, right outside the Committee room the students have begun their planned occupation of the Parliament grounds and buildings... when Rais emerges from the Committee room, he's greeted like a hero..... NAT SOT...Students go crazy for Rais/ line of military across top of outside of Parliament building 18.21 although the military initially position themselves as a barrier between the students and the Parliament building, there's no attempt to stop the students flooding into the grounds...and the corridors of power.. their teachers, their deans and the university alumni have also turned up, to add to the throng... at around 5 in the afternoon, the pressure notches up yet another level... The Speaker of the House, Mr Harmoko, makes a sudden and stunning statement to the Press... the President, he says, should resign.. Harmoko is also the chairman of Suharto's own creation, the ruling Golkar Party... 19.25 SARWONO I was hugely surprised at Harmoko's courage to...to do that. Q: How isolated is the President now? Very, very isolated... 19.35 MARSILLAM it's quite a dramatic turn and this happened only within, what hours. So, something more important must have happened. I mean, the balance of power must be shifting without we knowing it, I don't know what it is. Probably it's also their reading of the shift of the balance of power must give them a boost or an impetus to do what they did this afternoon. Dr Marsillam Simandjuntak is a leading figure in the Indonesia Forum for democracy.. In the mid nineteen seventies he spent a year and half in jail, for his political views Dr Simanjuntak knows Suharto's skills too well, to be sure that the showdown has really come for President Suharto 20.33 MARSILLAM I don't want to be to be too early to say that this is a show down. Why it's not a show down yet because we have not yet feel, or we have not yet seen the strike back of Suharto. We haven't seen yet considering what he has behind him, we haven't seen his response to what is done to him these days. Q Do you expect one, a strike back? A Ahh yes, yes. 21.20 AMIEN RAIS Q. Are you personally fearful, because you have been one of the most outspoken leaders of this movement.... A. ... yes.... Q. ... in these very... tense times. Do you feel that... the President may strike at you? A. Yes, er.. I don't rule out this possibility. Even last week, I got a political rumour but I think it was almost authentic, er.. that there was an instruction from the Palace er.. to arrest me, and even there is one Major General er... who was in charge to do that, you know. And then, he was hesitating.... er... to arrest me. And finally, the instruction was canceled, and... I'm happy for that. 22.06 MULYA LUBIS Q. How many political prisoners remain now in Indonesian jails? A. Only God knows perhaps. I don't know how many political prisoners we have. Certainly there are political prisoners in Jakarta. Some students were still in jail....some activists are still in jail, and we still have political prisoners in East Timor in the West Irian....in ....in ..... Adjat, and no-one can keep track on that. No-one can ...can keep track on that, yeah, so this is what has been ....er...what..what should be resolved yeah....by any leaders...any Governments come to power. 22,45 students dying in show As the end of Monday, the students at Trisakti have organised a memorial service . ..its now six days since the students were killed here at the campus... although its a mainly sombre occasion, the students are buoyed by the news of Harmoko's call for the president to resign... at around nine o'clock there's a candle lit remembrance for the students who died... NAT SOT ...grieving students the students are unaware that as they grieve, some of their leaders have heard the news that the Chief of the Armed Forces has denounced Harmoko's call for the President to resign as unconstitutional... General Wiranto has also warned the students not to ahead with a rally planned for two days time..people might get hurt the student leaders decide that it would be dangerous and irresponsible to tell this crowd what the army has said, ..better to let them find out in the morning 25.13 SURESH KUMAR We have over a thousand students here...Just because of the.... shooting... shooting of the army on the 12th May - all the people become very angry, all the students... very.. angry. So if we.. give this statement, this statement to the students directly right now, in this moment, I don't know, I do not know what.. they will do. Q. ... You feel.... A. .... We.. we are not afraid... of their.. madness, they're... maybe they're going mad - I don't know about that. But, what we are afraid... we do not want any... bloody tragedy happened again in.. this... campus - that's for sure. That's why we... will not announce these..... statement right now. We'll announce... it..... tomorrow. Q: Will you still go ahead with the March on Wednesday? We, will, we will do that... even if our blood came down to the ..the last blood, terrible last blood, we're still struggling. We don't afraid of..anything. GRAPHIX 19th May 1998 The National Monument. 26.25 its the day before the students have planned to march to the National Monument in the centre of Jakarta, on what's called National Awakening Day... it commemorates the birth of Indonesia's Independence movement... exterior of Mohamediya headquarters at Mohamediya headquarters the Muslim youth are waiting for their leader Amien Rais, to arrive...Rais has said that one million of his supporters will join the march... students cluster round TV... the news comes through the President is about to appear on national television...everyone understands that this will be Suharto's way to try and stop the march from going ahead... Suharto greeting Wahid The President has gathered some of his more moderate critics to join him at the Palace...among them is the widely respected Muslim leader, Abdurachman Wahid,.. NAT SOT of jeers and boos Wahid's preparedness to deal with Suharto has lost him the support of these more radical Muslim youth.. just as everyone expects to hear what Suharto has to offer, Suharto takes his guests behind closed doors.... singing on TV while the people of Indonesia are left to watch daytime television popular culture, Suharto tells the group he's assembled at the palace that he is prepared to enact political reform...one of them tells him bluntly that what the people mean by political reform is that he should resign.. 28.12 WAHID Q. And the President's response? A. Yeah, he responded by saying that... you know er... everything will be seen.... after the... you know, the... the Constitution. Q. It doesn't sound, from what you're saying, as if he... understood... the strength of feeling in the country? A. Yes, he doesn't understand. We know it for sure. 28.41 SARWONO Q. Why does the President... fail to appreciate... that people want him to leave now? A. Well I think er.. recently, during the past few years, he has been er... living in a... different reality. He's... lost touch... and he's increasingly er... over-confident of himself. Amien Rais press conference 29.05 Amien Rais was not invited to the palace meeting, but after its over he calls a press conference to respond to the outcome ... Suharto has announced that he'll call an early election, and he won't stand for President again...but without a definite timetable for when he'll go, this announcement is read as a strategy to buy more time... Amien at press conference "I think that 's exactly what is..this is just a strategy to buy more time to consolidate his power. Nobody would relinquish this power voluntarily… he will be defeated very soon… Q: But he is saying that he will go. Yes, but there is no timetable at all" Rais at press conference.. What Suharto has announced is not enough to make Rais tell his supporters to stay away from tomorrow's demonstration... 30.17 AMIEN RAIS Q. What do you hope to achieve by calling... your people onto the streets tomorrow? A. I just want to convince the whole world.. er... that Suharto is not trusted any longer by.... the Indonesian people. But, at the same time, I want to... make... his eyes opened, er... and also his hearts, if possible, opened... er.... to receive the very strong message that the people do not believe him any longer. GRAPHIX May 20th empty streets, soldiers, tanks 30.55 early the next morning the streets of central Jakarta are eerily deserted, the only people standing around are soldiers . ..the roads leading to the National Monument are blocked by barricades and guarded by heavily armed troops and tanks... at 6am Amien Rais broadcast a message on television telling his supporters to stay at home...he feared another Tianenman Square... 31.22 RAIS Yesterday evening somebody called me who happened to be an army General, to say he doesn’t care at all if an accident like Tiananmen takes place today in Jakarta. students milling about... 32.00 The students who are occupying the National Parliament buildings have also abandoned the idea of a march to the Monument.... .they've decided they'll just stay put here until Suharto resigns.. man makes slitting throat gesture VOX POP He wants the President to step down. masses of students 32.53 throughout the morning thousands more students arrive,..there's no attempt to stop them, no attempt to clear them out.... stacks of free food and water have been organised to keep the students well supplied.... the day proceeds with one rousing rallying speech after another,...the atmosphere is intense.. Emil walking through the crowd 33.24 in the mid afternoon, long time former Suharto Minister Emil Salim arrives to show solidarity with the students...Emil Salim is a widely respected figure, regarded as a Mr Clean in a government riddled with corruption.... NAT SOT ..cheering EMIL SALIM 33.44 when I arrived, frankly speaking, I was quite surprised that the reaction of the students were so spontaneous. I did not expect that type of acceptance ...of welcoming me, and so it was very new experience. I mean...it was for me, a...a fascinating big experience, which I did not expect. Emil helped up onto the stage.. 33.14 The whole experience of meeting the students makes Emil Salim realise that ideas like holding new elections in 6 months time are a dangerous joke... the President has to be persuaded to resign, immediately.... EMIL SALIM 34.30 I sense a sense of urgency, it must be done in days, and even hours. So after that meeting, I went to see....a top Minister and I told him...this must be conveyed to the President, that it's not a matter of days any more. It's a matter of hours, so please, if there is no blood-shed.....if we can't defend blood-shed, then...the President must take initiative, and this is our ..our notion. Please take the initiative of stepping down voluntary, otherwise, there will be a big blood-shed. 35.11 Marzuki Darusman is also a former member of Parliament, and in the late afternoon he joined the lobbying effort... MARZUKI DARUSMAN The strategy was to try to get in touch with some of the ministers holding economic portfolios, but also ... what we call conscience portfolios. For example, the Justice Minister.. the er.. Religious Minister and the Environment Minister er.. Minister, so that if they could be asked and to be convinced.. to resign it could create .. you know, that precipitating factor and which then could effect a change in.. in the overall political balance. Q. And you succeeded in getting 17 ministers to offer their resignation by last night? A. Well, It was more than we expected. Because we started with one or two ministers, and.. for whatever it's worth.. if we look back that might have been.. the crucial factor in effecting that changeover last night. 36.20 JUWONO SUDARSONO It was a matter of persuading to the President that .he had done enough of a service to his country, that perhaps time it was time to exercise a graceful exit as a statesman 36.42 MARZUKI DARUSMAN they submitted a letter together.. a joint letter.. which was received by the President round about 8 o'clock and we understand that er.. he was still trying to convince .. these ministers to stay on, because these ministers were actually a part of the reshuffle package. Q: So right to the very end he was trying to hang on in there ? A. (Er yes,) it would seem to the case. Yes. 37.12 night pics of soldiers On this the last night before Suharto resigns, there are rumours that the hard liners in the military are trying to provoke an incident in the Parliament Building as.a last ditch attempt to keep Suharto in power MARZUKI DARUSMAN Q. Because the hard-liners were looking for a crackdown? A. Oh yes. Certainly. They were.. they were looking for a chance to.. to justify er.. much severe action.. more severe action in.. in trying to clamp down the er.. student movement. There's no doubt about that. Q: Is it fair to say that General Prabowo Subianto, the President's son in law, would have been one of those looking for a crackdown? MARZUKI it may not be fair, but that's the perception of the public, so.. I.. I'm not pointing in any direction, but.. acknowledging only that.. General Wiranto was able to somehow control and manage the situation .. very well. night shot of soldiers moving about, tanks.. Its remains unclear exactly how the split in the armed forces played itself out, but in the event the moderates, led by General Wiranto, put a final argument to persuade the President its time to go 38.27 JUWONO the...summary would be...father.....you've done all you can for this country. ..it is time to step down. We will guarantee the safety and honour of your family GRAPHIX May 21st sleeping students... At half past midnight, while the students sleep another night in the Parliament Building , President Suharto's oldest daughter Tutut, phones Abdurachman Wahid, to tell him her father had decided to resign... 39.04 WAHID she said at the time that he will step down the next morning, that is this morning. And that the reason is because there are enough big number of the members of Parliament who will try to desert him. Just after nine the following morning, President Suharto is history... 39.23 Suharto NAT SOT in Bahasa..(subtitles) "I have decided to declare that I cease being the president of the Republic of Indonesia, effective from the time of this statement" 39.47 WAHID Well, this is the leaving of a man of big ideas, man of big thinking, but now he has to go out. 40.00 RAIS I think history will judge Suharto as very unfortunate leader. He had been given chance by his people to develop his country, and then he has a very... you know, bad end. And then he will be remembered by history as an nepotistic leader, as a corrupt leader. 20.28 JUWONO for all his faults, for all the problems that he had with his family, the business associates, er... and the difficulties he had.. in handling the various events in and outside Governments throughout the past 25 years, on balance, he is a great man. 40.48 SARWONO I... admire his tactical genius, I admire his.. er.. grace under pressure and I admire his ability to think clearly in times of stress. And I.... regret very much that a lot of these abilities has been lost during the past 5 years........ perhaps because he's been there too long. 41.11 MARSILLAM Q: Will you have any memories of Suharto about qualities of his that you would admire? A (LAUGHS) Well you come again 6 months from now and I'll tell you what (LAUGHS) I admire about him, not now. 41.28 MARZUKI DARUSMAN I think it's more. correct to look this not as the end of an era, but a beginning of a new.. a different era... a beginning of a different era where people feel confident in coming out criticising, and where people feeling confident in stating their views openly. 41.50 RAMA we don't..want a military leader again, because we want a democratisation process happen in this country.. Students splashing around in the fountain.... 42.47 MARSILLAM How will history judge Suharto? Ah., history as written by whom.