More and more women are being forced into prostitution. In the smaller, poorer towns, woman factory workers prostitute themselves in their lunch time. This is the future the IMF envisages for Indonesia and which the Indonesian political elite is willing to go along with while ever they can get their cut of the oil and loan monies swirling around in its billions in Jakarta. Afraid to rely on the people to fight these forces, whatever reforms President Wahid does try to implement face impossible blockages. Therefore it's not surprising that more and more of the country's downtrodden and exploited masses look for ways to resist.
Farmers occupy land or demonstrate demanding capital and technology to increase their productivity.
Students demand the arrest and trial of Suharto and his cronies on corruption charges. The task of bringing all the mushrooming social struggles into a single movement for change is urgent. A brief survey of the some of the issues the PRD face points to the magnitude of the challenge. And for West Papua the same applies. The list of issues goes on and on.