By Cindy Shiner
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, May 12, 1998; Page A13

JAKARTA, Indonesia, May 11—A prominent Muslim leader and opposition figure called on President Suharto to step down today -- a move observers said is likely to energize student demonstrators who have been pressing the aging general to release his 32-year grip on power.

"There is no choice other than to step down and let other people take a chance to form a new government," Amien Rais told thousands of followers to thunderous applause in a packed sports arena here. He said if Suharto is not prepared to leave office immediately, then in the short term he should reshuffle the cabinet -- a move Suharto has already rejected.

Rais, who recently returned from a trip to Washington, has presidential aspirations of his own. He did not call on his followers to join student demonstrators, but asked the crowd to lend moral support to their demands. He leads the 28-million-strong Muhammadiyah movement, which is the smaller but more progressive of Indonesia's two main Islamic organizations. Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population.

Rais has called for Suharto to step down before but not in so public a manner, nor during a time as politically charged as now. Earlier this year he gave the 76-year-old leader six months to prove he was committed to carrying out economic reforms as part of a $43 billion bailout by the International Monetary Fund.

Suharto has begun to make efforts to revitalize the economy, but the momentum of calls for political change has outpaced popular demands to mend the economy, with a growing number of people saying they no longer believe the situation will improve until Suharto goes.

Suharto raised prices on fuel, electricity and transportation last week as part of a subsidy-lifting measure in the IMF agreement, but the move only angered his critics further.

Rais said a change in leadership is the only way to avoid bloodshed following more than two months of student demonstrations that have grown increasingly violent as security forces try to keep the protesters on their campuses. Demonstrations indirectly led to rioting in two cities earlier this month, claiming at least seven lives.

"I'm afraid that the situation is developing very, very fast, and probably everything will be out of control unless Suharto comes down to earth and has the good wisdom to judge the objective situation," Rais told the British Broadcasting Corp.

Suharto, who is in Cairo this week for a summit of developing countries, is facing the worst economic and political crisis since he came to power, with the economy in decline, hardship spreading and demands for major political change mounting. Suharto warned Indonesians today that they will have to make "painful sacrifices and summon our reserves of endurance and social discipline."

Even former allies, including legislators and Muslim intellectuals linked to the government, have begun calling for reform, but they have stopped short of demanding that Suharto relinquish power.

"The wave for reform is so strong, so if you don't join the bandwagon you're late," said journalist Fikri Jufri. "So everybody wants reform now, and everybody has his own definition of reform now."

Among the suggested changes are a cabinet reshuffle and a special session of the People's Consultative Assembly -- a group largely picked by Suharto that meets every five years to chart government policy. The assembly appointed Suharto to a seventh consecutive five-year term in March.

Among those calling for a special session of the assembly are leaders of the Indonesian Association of Muslim Intellectuals, which has been chaired for years by B. J. Habibie, who is Suharto's longtime protege and new vice president. Habibie quickly tried to play down the association's demands, saying they represented the views of certain individuals and not the group as a whole.

"The very term 'special session' is a code term for a motion of no confidence," said Marzuki Darusman, vice chairman of the Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights. "It has a specific historic connotation. Anyone who calls for a special session is calling for the old man to step down."

Suharto has said that he favors discussion of minor political reforms, but that any tinkering to the system would not be implemented until legislative elections in 2002 or after his term expires in five years. The Muslim association called his proposal "vague, too little and too late," a view shared by the tens of thousands of students demonstrating daily on campuses around the country.