For the Dictator Who Has Everything

JAKARTA: Indonesia's legislature handed President Suharto "broad new powers" Monday to crack down on protests over the economic crisis, which is made worse by fear that the aging strongman plans to defy IMF conditions for a bailout. Those powers are reported to include the right to dissolve parliament and ban opposition parties. Since Suharto already controls parliament, the military and even those opposition parties that he allows to operate, the legislature clearly had some difficulty in coming up with any powers that Suharto hadn't already claimed.