renewed mobilizations for independence in Aceh andWest Papua.64 Indonesia,
it appeared, was destined to go the way of Yugoslavia, as Suharto’s army generals—
like their Burmese counterparts—had been warning of for years.
This alarmist scenario proved decidedly false. The “anti-Chinese” riots of
May 1998, after all, had been orchestrated by the generals themselves, and with
Suharto’s departure violence against the ethnic-Chinese effectively ceased. In
subsequent years, ethnic-Chinese Indonesians saw a dramatic easing of restrictions
on their cultural, political, and religious freedoms, and a reduction of
impediments to naturalization for those lacking Indonesian citizenship. Interethnic
and inter-religious violence faded away, and Islamist terrorism remained
highly limited in scope.