Monday, July 23, 2001. The date will go down in Indonesian history. On that day Abdurrahman Wahid let off the final weapon he had in his arsenal, in a futile last bid to hang on to the presidency: his long-threatened decree to suspend the House of Representatives (DPR) and the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR). Just for good measure, he suspended the former ruling Golkar party, one of the main elements in the coalition against him.

Iron