INDONESIA: Retaliation and Reform

"Let the dust settle before the heads roll," counsels a Javanese proverb. For several days following the disastrous rioting in the streets of Jakarta that accompanied the visit of Japanese Premier Kakuei Tanaka (TIME, Jan. 28), the Indonesian government of General Suharto reacted hardly at all. Then, barely a week after the disturbances that had left eleven people dead, 807 automobiles gutted and 144 buildings damaged, the government retaliated. It shut down nine newspapers and arrested 775 persons, including 21 of Jakarta's most prominent intellectuals. The government's aim, declared one of the President's personal assistants, General Ali Murtopo—who had...