Ms Megawati remains as inscrutable as the Mona Lisa. The disgraced military and political elites simply wait for the restoration of the old order under a new and, they must hope, more malleable and predictable leader. While Jakarta is preoccupied with intrigue, brinkmanship and betrayal, the fourth-most populous nation on Earth is battered by destructive separatist, communal and economic pressures. Even as Indonesians awaited Mr Wahid's statement yesterday, there was news of 19 more deaths in rebellious Aceh. Troubles continue in West Irian and the Mulukus.
East Java is at the edge, with rioting and security forces on high alert.
The climate of crisis is at once internally destabilising and anathema to foreign investors and the international banks. It also poses grave potential threats to regional security. An inside look at Afghanistan, the country in the eye of a global storm. Escaping the Taliban A Herald series tracking the asylum seekers' journey from Afghanistan. The race to clone a human.