Indonesia's students are back on the streets with a new slogan: bring down the price of rice and bring down new president B. J. Habibie. It is just four months since they helped topple President Suharto.
The latest protests began in Jakarta and other cities in early September as students returned from their summer break. Protestors believe that Habibie, a protege of Suharto, is too close to the old regime to be a credible leader. They want him replaced by a people's committee that would organise new elections.
They also want the government to bring down the price of food to help ease the growing desperation of millions of poor Indonesians who can barely afford to eat.
Five thousand people took part in an attempt to occupy the parliament building in Jakarta on September 7. They sat on the ground around the gate, singing and chatting. At 2am, when most of them had gone home, the rest were baton-charged by riot police and driven away. Five people were hurt, two badly.
The protesters, a loose grouping of staff and students 37 universities and colleges called Forum Kota (City Forum) have already triggered a counter-attack. Government leaders, including the armed forces chief, General Wiranto, have accused them of trying to derail the government's efforts to repair the crumbling economy.
"We are not willing to see a few people jeopardise the interests of more than 200 million," General Wiranto warned. The army, which stood aside to let the students protest against Suharto, now fears that political reform is slipping out of its control.
A Tiananmen-style crackdown is unlikely, however. The army is already embarrassed by revelations that its troops murdered many civilians during Suharto's rule. Student activists are worried about being discredited by more insidious methods. They believe agents provocateurs are being paid to cause trouble. Posters and leaflets have appeared around Jakarta accusing Forum Kota of being closet communists. In Indonesia this is like calling someone a Nazi.
Forum Kota's members are young, enthusiastic and determinedly non-violent. They plan to keep up their campaign until Habibie resigns. The task they have set themselves is hard. When Suharto fell, there was a feeling throughout Indonesia that it was time for him to go. Now, there is widespread discontent because of high food prices, but the students have yet to prove that they can harness it.
Their lecturers allow them to organise on campus. However, not everyone has joined in: the elite University of Indonesia, for example, is staying on the sidelines. This reflects a split among pro-democracy reformers, dating back to Suharto's resignation, over whether to carry on the struggle against Habibie or to allow him time to prove his commitment to reform.
The more radical group is now setting the pace. "We never intended Habibie to stay as president and we're going to let everyone know that we're not happy and he's got to go," said an economics student at Jakarta's Trisakti University.
Trisakti gave the student movement its first martyrs when four people were shot dead on campus in May. Now the students are back in the fray and as determined as before, but few would dare to predict which way their movement, or Indonesia itself, will go in the coming months.