AT one time, Wiranto and the highest authority in the country were as close as a thumbnail. Three days before he announced his resignation, former President Suharto gave Presidential Instruction No. 16/1998 to General Wiranto, then the Indonesian Armed Forces commander. The entire country noted that historical date: May 18, 1998.

The decree gave Wiranto almost unlimited authority to restore stability from the chaos engulfing the nation. It was eeri