In the world’s largest Muslim-majority country,140 million voters went to the polls yesterday and indicated their preference for a change of government. There were no massacres and, so far as we can tell, no reports of intimidation or terrorist attacks. It was the first direct presidential election in Indonesia’s history, and a landmark in the country’s transition to full democracy following the ouster of Suharto, who ruled from 1966 to 1998. An Associated Press dispatch from Jakarta quoted a 40-year-old fish salesman, Budi Supriadi, who said, “This makes me feel like the freedom is real.”

America’s deputy defense secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, who served as America’s ambassador to Indonesia during the Reagan administration, made an essential point two years ago when on a trip to Asia he remarked, “The Indonesians are kind of modest about themselves and don’t go around blowing their own horn a lot. …but I think it’s a story that needs to get out more.” Said Mr. Wolfowitz,”For those non-Muslims who think of all Muslims as being fanatics, it’s an eye opener to see how different the overwhelming majority of Indonesian Muslims are from that fanatic lineage.”

He went on,”For Muslims who may be tempted by the idea that the road to vindication is the road mapped by al Qaeda — does he know that the largest Muslim population of any country in the world is a group of people really have a very, very different [attitude] toward religion, toward non-Muslims, toward women?”

Mr. Wolfowitz said he believed that America and other advanced countries “have a big interest in seeing Indonesian democracy succeed.”

If the world’s largest Muslim population “embodies those values of tolerance and openness and acceptance of an important role for women,” Mr. Wolfowitz said, “If Indonesia succeeds…it can be a very important model for the rest of the Muslim world.”