While elections in Iraq seem more precarious by the day, those recently held in Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country in the world, went off smoothly. A former general and Cabinet officer in the last government, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, known as SBY, is expected to be named president; the results will be made official in the next few weeks.

Just the successful staging of the presidential election comes as something of a relief. Indonesia’s people went to the polls three times this year for parliamentary elections in April, then again in July, and on September 20 for two rounds of the presidential election. Nevertheless, election fatigue was not a problem. Some 120 million ballots were cast, with an 80% turnout rate.

The apparent defeat of the incumbent is also relief of a kind. Megawati Sukarnoputri was unable or unwilling to lead. It was never clear whether her views or simply her temperament – detachment verging on boredom – caused her indifferent response to Indonesia’s economic difficulties, corruption, and threat from terrorism.

Nevertheless, Ms. Megawati is guaranteed a respected place in her country’s history. It was she against whom the dictator Suharto lashed out in 1996, at the beginning of his fall. She held her ground, sort of, protected by her status as the daughter of Sukarno, the leader of the Indonesian independence movement and the country’s first president. When the first post-Suharto elections were held in 1999, she won the highest number of votes, only to step aside without a fight when she was maneuvered, for a time, out of the presidency.

Ms. Megawati’s popularity derived largely from an enemy that no longer exists. Suharto’s apparatus of state continues to fall away. Under the dictatorship, the official government party, Golkar, always won, with the vote tally announced in advance. This time, Golkar failed to advance its own candidate into the final round and then still lost when it joined in a coalition with its old adversary, Ms. Megawati and her party.

Entrenched corruption is still an enormous problem. But now it energizes civic activists who, free to challenge it openly, organize protests and bring about prosecutions of corrupt officials.

The military is no longer the unrivaled force in politics and society.

Earlier than planned, it has given up its seats in Parliament. The former General Wiranto, chief of the military under Suharto, and an indictee for war crimes in East Timor, was knocked out in the first round of voting. While Mr. Yudhoyono is a former general, he has a reputation as a reformer and is thought of as untainted by atrocities. However, his indecision is the trait most often mentioned by observers of his career. That will not be an asset in dealing with Indonesia’s most pressing problems:

* An economy beset by high unemployment, low foreign investment and growth rates, and entrenched corruption.

* Indonesians are sick of corruption, but it will be difficult to break ingrained practices, including use of Cabinet ministries as prizes to pay off political allies.

* Violence and military abuses continue in far-flung parts of the archipelago, including Aceh, where Human Rights Watch this week reported systematic torture by the military.

* Indonesia has failed to resolve atrocities committed by the military as far back as the 1980s. According to the State Department, officers responsible for serious abuses hold senior government and military posts. The American Congress is demanding serious investigations into the murders of two Americans in Papua that may be tied to the military.

* The use of libel suits to chill free speech and press freedom has crept into the judicial system. Three journalists have been charged with criminal defamation. One defendant noted that such prosecutions signaled the signs of the collapse of Indonesia’s first democratic experience in the 1950s.

* Terrorism. Despite improving police work, Indonesia has not come to grips with the phenomenon of Islamic terrorism, failing even to ban Jemaah Islamiyah, an Indonesian terrorist group.

The good news is that the new president, directly elected by the people for the first time, has a mandate. He has already shown he understands the need to be far more communicative and transparent in his governing style than his predecessor, convening large meetings to hear from ordinary citizens.

Years ago when Suharto was tottering, a lot of wise people said there was no alternative to the dictator. Indonesia’s people have proved them wrong.

Ms. Bork is deputy director of the Project for the New American Century.