THE face of the 74-year-old man was familiar. When he was speaking before guests at the Jakarta Convention Center seminar room in South Jakarta on Thursday evening last week, only one thing was “missing.” No longer did he interject his words with “Uhm”. “Hopefully I won’t be hesitating so much,” he said, greeted by peals of laughter. Indeed, he spoke smoothly for the next half hour.

The speaker was Moerdiono, who that evening had b