The presidential transition this week in Indonesia from Mr Abdurtahman Wahid to Mrs Megawati Sukarnoputri has been calm and peaceful, after Mr Wahid's parliamentary impeachment on charges of corruption and incompetence. This augurs well for the new president. But she faces huge challenges in tackling the legacy of economic collapse, disintegrating politics and ethnic violence bequeathed by Mr Wahid.
Indonesia, with its huge and diverse population of 210 million living in an archipelago of some 17,000 islands, is the fourth-largest nation-state in the world.
Since 1996, when the autocratic General Suharto was overthrown, the country has been in political turmoil, deepened drastically by the economic and financial crisis of 1997-8 and the long struggle for East Timor's independence. Rich in natural resources and strategically located, its political destiny is of worldwide concern.
Mrs Megawati's leadership credentials include her 14 years in politics since 1987. She withstood extreme pressure in defying General Suharto's efforts to crush her party, recalling the spirit of her father, President Sukarno, who achieved independence from the Dutch.
She has shown an ability for political teamwork and supports a centralised, unitary state. But commentators doubt whether she can rise to the immense challenges posed by recent events and discern a marked preference for her among the armed forces and police.
Mrs Megawati's most immediate task will be to reopen negotiations with the International Monetary Fund in an attempt to alleviate the heavy foreign and domestic debts accumulated over the last five years, and tackle economic reforms and endemic corruption.
Millions of people have descended into deep poverty as industries collapsed and investment dried up. That made ethnic clashes much more severe and reinforced several demands for independence.
It will take a determined and vigorous mobilisation of talent to take on these challenges. Mrs Megawati will also have to mend fences with the parliament which impeached Mr Wahid and the factional parties opposed to her which remain powerful within it.