Less moderate Islamic leaders within Wahid's own Government believe Indonesia's majority Muslims must take more prominent positions in society. The problem for Wahid and his mantra of tolerance lies in the historical structure of Indonesian society. During Dutch colonial rule the mainly Christian ethnic Chinese community was permitted to trade and grew relatively prosperous, while the ethnic Malay Muslim majority was enslaved to the plantations, landless and poor. Fifty years of independence and internal migration has blurred the social cleavages, but in too many areas race, religions and wealth form an explosive structural fault line of power. Only 4 per cent of Indonesians are ethnic Chinese, but they control an estimated 70 per cent of business.
Christians are also over-represented in the professions and government.
It is no surprise that Chinese Christians are targeted in mob violence. But in scores of towns when pent-up resentments have been vented communities find themselves without the very Christian shopkeepers, doctors, pharmacists and even loan sharks who hold the community together. The most urgent question now is what kind of Indonesia would emerge if Wahid were to be forced out. An obvious option is a return to authoritarianism. In the meantime, the apparent strategy of burning Wahid out of the presidential palace can mean only more damage to the social fabric and fading hopes for a stable, democratic nation to Australia's north.