Metal detector checks on cars, threats to the President from a Muslim activist, and a hard liner US Ambassador talking of entrenched terrorism in the country. Threats from the IMF to close the money tap. Separatist and ethnic conflicts are breaking out across the archipelago, pulling the country downwards ever downwards. A legal system infamous for its weakness and corrupt judiciary. Indonesia's President Gus Dur could be forgiven for wondering why he ever wanted to take the job in the first place.
Most countries have a couple of intractable problems - Indonesia has scores.
Gus Dur needs to regain the initiative within days rather than weeks, or the forces working behind the scenes to bring him down, will succeed. Without him, the country would be plunged into an abyss, alone without international friends, and with civil war the one single certainty. The President's recent actions, and pointed remarks by the Defense and Security Minister as well as the Attorney General, indicate that he believes the source of the 'dark forces' is former dictator Soeharto, his family and business cronies. He believes they have made a declaration of war against his rule. There is a widely shared conviction that the former President still has powerful allies who would do virtually anything to protect their interests.