Suharto faces wave of dissent as Sukarno's daughter becomes a rallying point

The name Sukarno in Indonesia carries with it some of the redolence which the Nehru-Gandhi clan can claim in India. If Jawaharlal Nehru passed on his political acumen to Indira Gandhi, Achmed Sukarno - Nehru's old ally from the Non-Aligned Movement's founding days - seems to have left a political legacy for his daughter Megawati Sukarnoputri, 49. A path beset with obstacles, not least the might of the man who took over from her father: Haji Muhammad Suharto.

That might was unleashed dramatically on July 27 when a Sukarnoputri-led sit-in at the headquarters of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI by its Indonesian initials) was crushed in an attack, which led angry youths onto Jakarta streets to burn cars and buildings in a display of discontent with Suharto's New Order regime.

Suharto, at 75 years of age and in his thirtieth year in power, faces his next formal test of strength in March 1998, when the People's Constituent Assembly is due to either re-elect him or find a new President. At the least, a decision will have to be made on who will be his vice-president and the man most likely to succeed him. With no clear crown prince-apparent, the military crackdown is being seen as a clear signal of who is in control.

At stake is the future of a country which has long been the darling of the World Bank. Indonesia has watched poverty fall from 60 percent of the population to only 14 percent and per capita GDP rise to US $1,000, all in a mere three decades.