Full of dust, the room in the detention house of the Attorney General's Office where Akbar Tandjung remained in fact was not fit for the office of general chairman of a major party. There was no flag or banner. Nor were there photographs of the president and vice president on its dull white walls.

However, from this room, with a small folding table beside a bed, he was going to run the Golkar Party. "I'll be at the helm though confined h