Jakarta – May 1998. Students from throughout the country spilled into the hall and occupied the national parliament building. The State Palace also was not spared the invasion of large numbers of uninvited guests.

The national liberation of the people of Latin America, which has been inspired by the people’s struggle in Venezuela led by President Hugo Chavez, should be able to inspire similar methods and ideologies in the Indonesian national struggle.

Jakarta – An intelligence coordinating meeting which was held yesterday has yet to officially recommend that the director of the International Crisis Group (IGC) Sydney Jones be expelled from Indonesia.

Jakarta – It is doubtful that the 2004 general elections will produce a new leadership which can break the vicious circle of continuing economic, social and political crisis.

Anindhita Maharrani, Jakarta – Cleaning up the New Order [regime of former President Suharto] is truly a super difficult job. Basically, almost all of the political parties at the moment are leftovers of the New Order who more or less have the same mentality.

Jakarta – In order to resolve the conflict in Aceh there must be a new political party which does not have the mentality and methods of the New Order [regime of former President Suharto]. This new political party must have a concrete and clear agenda to resolve the Aceh problem and at the same time the problems of the Indonesian nation.

Jakarta – Revoking the status of a military emergency in Aceh is a prerequisite for holding general elections in Aceh. If not, it will be difficult to hope for quality elections.