Political prisoners are expected to walk free from the gaunt Suharto-era gulag of Jakarta's Cipinang prison today in the first concrete attempt by the four dayold presidency of Mr Jusuf Habibie, to step out from under the shadow of his predecessor.
It comes as Mr Habibie is supposedly preparing to announce he will call an early general election in a bid to check a widening revolt by cabinet ministers insisting the government should seek a new mandate as soon as possible.
A rebellion within Indonesia's brand-new government gained strength yesterday, when five cabinet ministers joined calls for early elections, the official Antara news agency reported.
The leader of Indonesia's only independent labour union, Mr Mochtar Pakpahan, and a prominent Suharto critic, Mr Sri Bintang Pamungkas, are expected to be among the first prisoners freed by the government in a symbolic gesture intended to persuade the country his government means business on reform.
The opposition leader, Dr Amien Rais, said Mr Habibie had told him during a meeting on Saturday he will make the announcement today "and the two will be set free".
"The Attorney-General has made the proposal and the Justice Minister said he will do it," Mr Dewi Fortuna Anwar, a close adviser to Mr Habibie confirmed. Military chiefs have already agreed to the release of these detainees, she said, but not to the release of the East Timorese resistance leader, Mr Xanana Gusmao, or those jailed for alleged Communist activities.
Mr Sri Bintang, a former MP jailed for 34 months for a speech to students in Germany attacking Mr Suharto, demanded yesterday they should be freed unconditionally, not under an amnesty. In a statement read to journalists admitted into Cipinang jail yesterday, Mr Sri Bintang said they would refuse amnesty "as freedom is really our right".
In another move intended to point to a new era of openness, the government has pledged to publish in full a report it is due to receive from the military today on the shootings of six students demonstrating at a Jakarta university last week which ignited the wave of rioting. Mr Habibie has additionally promised a revision of the law on subversion and is expected to take early action to clear away laws restricting press freedom.
But Mr Habibie disappointed many by choosing a cabinet, sworn in on Saturday and due to meet for the first time today, which includes many Suharto-era faces.
Dr Rais said yesterday that President Habibie accepts his new administration is a transitional one and has pledged to hold general elections within a year.
Mr Habibie agreed to opposition demands for a fresh poll at a meeting with opponents on Saturday night, Dr Rais told reporters.
The jailed Timorese leader, Mr Gusmao, said that the fight against Indonesian rule would go on despite the fall of Gen Suharto.
The Portuguese news agency Lusa quoted him as telling journalists in an interview from his Jakarta jail that the new government of Indonesia had to respect demands for independence for the territory, annexed in 1976 after a bloody invasion.
"We will continue our combat," the agency quoted Mr Gusmao as saying.
Mr Gusmao's words appeared to contradict those of his official spokesman abroad, the Nobel peace prize laureate, Dr Jose Ramos Horta, who has called for restraint from anti-Indonesia activists in East Timor.
However, Gusmao did not spell out whether the "combat" meant military clashes.
Dr Ramos Horta, who lives abroad, recently renewed his call for the South African President, Mr Nelson Mandela, to intervene to pressure the Indonesians into releasing Mr Gusmao, who is serving a 20-year sentence.
The Australian government yesterday joined calls from Dr Ramos Horta for Indonesia to reform its policy on Timor and reduce its military presence there.
Smiling broadly, Mr Gusmao exulted yesterday in the ousting of his longtime nemesis, Gen Suharto. "We have long been waiting for such a happy moment to see him off the stage," he said.
Mr Gusmao said he hoped the fall of Gen Suharto, who fiercely rejected international criticism of his handling of East Timor, would pave the way for his people's independence.
Also in the prison, a 72 year-old colonel, jailed 32 years ago as a ringleader of the abortive 1965 communist coup that brought expresident Suharto to power, called the fall of Suharto "a great joy".
"It is fantastic, it is a great joy for all the Indonesian people," said Col Abdul Latief. Col Latief was speaking in Indonesian with a slurred voice, the result of a stroke he suffered a year and a half ago.
"People who were once suppressed can now speak up. The proof is today, that all these people have come today to see us," he said of Gen Suharto's fall to some 35 journalists who crowded into the jail.
Questioned on the events in September 1965, when a group of colonels, including Col Latief, murdered five generals suspected of plotting against then-president Sukarno, and wounded a sixth, Col Latief said he himself had told Gen Suharto what was going to happen.