Suharto's heirs.

• Position: US should sever ties with Indonesian military and support the democracy movement - Editorial

The dictator is gone. The dictatorship lives. The eventful days of May that brought down Suharto, one of the world's most sanguinary autocrats, might go down in the books as a historic step toward freedom. But they also might be recorded as a tragic missed opportunity.

In an enormously courageous and inspiring act, Indonesian students did what would have been unimaginable a year ago. They organized peaceful, mass protests and forced Suharto out of office. This is cause for worldwide celebration. It proves that no matter how oppressed people may be, the wellspring of freedom will not dry up. And when people dare to challenge authority en masse, they don't need guns to overthrow their dictator. They need only themselves.

"You never know what spark is going to lead to a conflagration," Howard Zinn noted in The Progressive last July. "You do things again and again, and nothing happens. You have to do things, do things, do things. You have to light that match, light that match, light that match, not knowing how often it's going to sputter and go out and at what point it's going to take hold. Things take a long time. It requires patience, but not a passive patience--the patience of activism."

Indonesian students lit that match after more than three decades of active patience. Finally it caught fire. One reason it did, ironically, is that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) spread around a lot of kindling. The IMF's insistence that the government lift the price of fuel by 70 percent sent not only the students but thousands of the middle class into the streets.

"The IMF officials miscalculated," says Allan Nairn, an investigative reporter who was expelled from Indonesia in March. "They were phasing in the increased fuel prices too quickly."

Suharto tried to play the populist card by appearing to stand up to the IMF, but no one bought it. Indonesians realized that he opposed the IMF's prescriptions not because they would cause mass suffering but because they would deprive Suharto's family of its usual perks, Nairn says.

By this time, Suharto had lost all remnants of popular support. With the economy crashing and no relief in sight, the generals began to worry that the people's rebellion would get out of hand and threaten their rule. That's why General Wiranto finally told Suharto to pack his bags and hand over titular power to his old crony, B.J. Habibie.

For the democracy movement in Indonesia, this interregnum presents a challenge. The students...