Many ordinary Indonesians understood the need for help better than the government did.

The war is enormously popular with ordinary Indonesians, who consider the loss of East Timor a national humiliation.

As the news about the independence declaration spread throughout the archipelago, ordinary Indonesians felt a sense of freedom that led most to regard themselves as pro-Republican.

In the tradition of his earlier work, Pramoedya's latest novel describes the struggle of ordinary Indonesians to live their lives freely.

Under the pressures of economic crisis, ordinary Indonesians - students especially - lost their fear of the regime.

Don't want ordinary Indonesians to start empathising with people under oppression, not with Indonesia's ongoing record.

Given what ordinary Indonesians are saying about their own lack of confidence, however, the donors would do well to put governance at the top of their agenda.

And he said that when one of his former students went to homes of ordinary Indonesians, he discovered that "they still have my picture on the walls."

That, says Stanley Fischer, the Fund's No. 2 official, "gave us a lot of credibility" with ordinary Indonesians.

Fighting terror effectively requires winning the cooperation of ordinary Indonesians, not further alienating them through military highhandedness.