ABSTRACT
The compliance of the entire MPR was ensured by packing it with 276 armed forces officers, of whom half were generals, senior naval men and marshals, with colonels comprising most of the others. At that time the junta was busy with a new stage in its plan to castrate the political parties, a delicate operation, which was one of the causes of the March nerves; it feared that if public indignation were allowed to rise politicians might be encouraged to show fight. Suharto did not press the matter, apparently thinking it better to be let the parties remain separate until after the elections, when his certain victory would make it easier to deal with them. The villagers, the theory was, would be better devoting their energies to development than politics. Suharto’s men had long been setting up a chorus of fictitiously spontaneous demands for his re-election as President.
