While Suharto remains at his Jakarta home under military protection, Bambang Trihatmodjo, his billionaire second son, was banned last week from leaving the country as police investigate the collapse of a bank he partly owned. Cabinet ministers who served and grew wealthy under Suharto, including Habibie, said they would account publicly for their assets. The future of the world's fourth most populous country looks bleak. Inflation and unemployment are soaring. The food minister says 17 million families are not getting enough to eat and voiced fears of famine before the rice harvest in January.
Thousands line up every morning to buy state-subsidized rice and other basic goods like cooking oil.
Many have been doing without since the market price of rice tripled. Prices have gone up and there's not much work around,'' said a man on Lombok, an island 600 miles east of Jakarta.