<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The streets of Jakarta – Upset Victory – upset crowds.</figcaption></figure>



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A day of sweeping contrasts, this October 20th, 1999

From Jakarta – Parliament elected an ailing but revered Muslim moderate as Indonesia’s new leader today, hours after President B.J. Habibic suffered a humiliating political setback and d withdrew from the racc. Abdurrahman Wahid (pronounced Ahb-door-RAH-man Wah-heed), whose political shrewdness helped him outmaneuver the woman long held to be the -runner for president. now faces the daunting task of restoring national unity and leading the world’s fourth-biggest country out of its worst economic crisis in a gencration. It was the first free and contested election for head of state in Indonesia’s 54 years of independence.

There never has been more than one candidate in past presidential ballots. In the historic vote. the 700- member People’s Consultative Committee backed Wahid over pro-democracy opposition leader *Megawati Sukarnoputri. the popSular daughter of Indonesia’s : founding president, Sukarno, by ;a vote of to 313, with five ‘abstentions.

After Wahid defeated Megawati, both tried to overcome deep divisions in the country’s many activist groups, some of which had threatened violent protests if the election didn’t go their way. “For the unity of the nation, I call on the people of Indonesia to accept the results of the election,” Megawati said in parliament after she joined Wahid and hundreds of other legislators in singing Indonesia’s national anthem following the vote. “Together with Megawati I celebrate our independence and freedom,” said 59, better known by his nickname, Gus Dur. After Mcgawati lost, explosions and clashes rocked Jakarta. Security forces fired tear gas and warning shots at a mob of at least 10,000 people who threw rocks and gasoline bombs after they were blocked from marching on Parliament.

Toll booths were set afire, and cars and shops were vandalized. Witnesses said at least four people, including two soldiers, were injured when a car exploded near the legislature. The cause of the blast was not immediately known. and there were unconfirmed reports of fatalities.

And from Northern Ireland: With time running out rapidly for the U.S.-led attempt to rescue the collapsing Good Friday peace agreement, Peter Mandelson Tuesday took the message to Dublin that there was no alternative blueprint under consideration. The new secretary of state for Northern Ireland told reporters during his first official visit to the Irish Republic: “The only show in town is the Good Friday agreement. In all respects it provides a way forward that accommodates everyone … and gives everyone a proper expression of their concerns and interests.

It provides the basis for an unbreakable peace in Ireland. … “Every community wants it. Politicians must listen to the people and get on and come together and generate that necessary trust between them to take it forward.” Meanwhile, former U.S. senator George Mitchell was chairing fresh talks in London between the Ulster Unionists, Sinn Fein and, later in the day, the e largest nationalist grouping, the SDLP, to resolve the seemingly intractable dispute over IRA disarmament and devolution amid new signs from both sides that agreement at this stage may not be possible.

Although Mitchell has set no absolute deadline to his attempts to square the negotiating circle that began on Sept. 6, officials have indicated that, in the next few days, he must either receive hard evidence that a breakthrough is imminent or he will return home.

From the Middle-East: Militant Jewish settlers erected a makeshift synagogue in a rogue outpost in the West Bank yesterday in symbolic defiance of plans by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to remove the settlement. Dancing, singing and waving Israeli flags to the sound of klezmer music, about 1,000 people held a high-spirited “welcoming” ceremony for a Torah, or Scripture scroll, to be placed in the hilltop house of worship. The Ma’on Farm stronghold is one of 42 outposts that settlers set up without government approval to create “facts on the ground” ahead of Israeli-Palestinian talks on a permanent peace. After talks with the umbrella Council of Jewish Settlements, Barak earmarked 12, including Ma’on, for “voluntary” removal. Elsewhere, near the Suissa settlement in the southern West Bank, demonstrators blocked the road leading to a hilltop with four mobile homes until the council canceled plans to evacuate it.

Mindful of possible resistance to the deal he reached with the council, Barak has said Israel will impose its will on settlers his government regards as squatters.

And while news from Jakarta continued, that’s a small slice of what happened, this October 20, 1999 from The BBC World Service – World Update program.

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