President B.J. Habibie, for decades the loyal aide of a dictator and now a self-proclaimed democrat, will be fighting for his political life this week.
With Indonesia's watershed presidential election coming on Oct. 20, he faces a series of critical challenges to his grip on power over the world's fourth most-populous nation.
Today, Habibie is expected to decide whether to order the widely demanded prosecution of ex-President Suharto, his former mentor and childhood friend who is accused of widespread graft during an authoritarian reign.
Tomorrow, leaders of Habibie's deeply divided Golkar Party will start debating whether to keep or dump him as its candidate for the presidency.
On Thursday, Habibie is to deliver the president's annual "accountability" address to the highest legislative body, the People's Consultative Assembly, which is to decide on the presidency six days later.
Habibie is obliged to detail his government's achievements and shortcomings during his 16 turbulent months in office since violent demonstrations forced Suharto to resign.
He has implemented sweeping political reforms, ended years of authoritarian rule, held the first free parliamentary elections in 44 years, released hundreds of political prisoners and unshackled the media.
But his popularity among Indonesia's 210 million people has languished. He is tainted by close links to Suharto, and the continuing economic slump and recent bloodshed in East Timor are further blows.
A German-educated engineer before entering politics in the 1970s, Habibie was Suharto's longest-serving Cabinet minister and his hand-picked successor. He once described the autocrat as a "super-genius," and many people doubt he will put the ailing, 78-year-old Suharto on trial.
Adding to Habibie's problems is a widening corruption and banking scandal.
Investigators allege that some of his supporters siphoned off money from a defunct bank, allegedly to bribe members of the Consultative Assembly.
Habibie has denied any wrongdoing. But the accusations have cast a deep shadow.
Indonesians should "rid themselves of the man who has worsened the ruinous kleptocracy during the past 16 months," the Jakarta Post said in an editorial on Friday.
The scandal goes to the heart of Habibie's pledge to clean up corruption. This has worried the International Monetary Fund, which is bailing Indonesia out of its worst economic crisis in three decades.
The East Timor crisis has brought misery to that territory's people and humiliation to Indonesia's politically powerful military, which was forced to withdraw after 24 years of occupation and replaced by foreign peacekeepers.
Habibie approved the UN-super-vised independence referendum for the former Portuguese colony. An overwhelming vote to break away from Indonesia triggered a bloody backlash by anti-independence militiamen who torched much of the territory with the help of disgruntled soldiers.
Some politically powerful generals are said to be furious and some analysts say the debacle all but killed any hope Habibie had of being elected to a five-year term by the 700-member People's Consultative Assembly.
"Habibie is finished," said Daniel Sparinga, a political science professor at Airlanga University.
At least outwardly, Habibie remains confident. "All the candidates have the same chance," he said on national television on Friday.
Habibie's supporters have taken heart from a rift that has emerged among his main rivals for the presidency.
Five months ago, hundreds of thousands of supporters swamped the streets of Jakarta after parliamentary elections to demand that Megawati Sukarnoputri become president. Her party won the most votes in the election, and as the daughter of Indonesia's founding head of state, Sukarno, she is eager to return to the stately Merdeka Palace.
But her Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle does not have a majority in the assembly, and she has failed to strike strategic alliances with other political groups.
Her party recently lost four key votes in the assembly, and there is speculation she might be outmaneuvered in the presidential vote.
In a blow to her candidacy, Megawati's former No. 1 ally, Abdurrahman Wahid, recently entered the presidential race.
Wahid, founder of the third-ranked National Awakening Party, also heads the largest Muslim organization in the world's most populous Islamic nation. Known commonly as Gus Dur, he has long espoused religious and ethnic tolerance in a country all too prone to communal violence.
But while Wahid commands wide respect, some people doubt he is fit to lead the country. He has lost most of his sight and is plagued with serious health problems.
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