Debate on Wahid's impeachment begins today

By Amit Baruah

JAKARTA, MAY 29 In a bizarre conjunction of circumstances, the Indonesian President, Mr. Abdurrahman Wahid, will be opening the G-15 summit tomorrow morning almost at the same time as the Lower House of Parliament begins discussing the impeachment move against him.

While Mr. Wahid opens the meeting at the Jakarta Convention Centre, the House of Representatives or DPR will meet at the nearby Parliament building to call a special session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) which has the authority to impeach the President.

Mr. Wahid's supporters demonstrated outside the Supreme Court in Jakarta today - calling on it to issue a decree declaring the special session unconstitutional and also outlaw the Golkar party, a ruling instrument created by the former President, Gen. Suharto.

In East Java, Mr. Wahid's stronghold, his supporters reportedly burnt two churches in Pasuruan after being forced away from some Government buildings they were trying to attack.

In the provincial capital of Surabaya, the supporters were dispersed by police, who fired warning shots as some 3,000 activists tried to storm the local legislature.

The police have promised to take strong action against Mr. Wahid's supporters if they break the law in the capital, which is currently playing host to leaders from 19 countries.

``If they (Wahid loyalists) try to provoke mass unrest, we'll beat them up,'' Jakarta's police chief, Inspector-General Sofyan Jacob, was quoted as saying.

The ``decree'' issued by Mr. Wahid yesterday calling upon the Security Minister, Mr. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, to restore ``order'' did not have any perceptible impact.

In fact, the ``decree'' seems to have been issued after several Ministers reportedly opposed the planned declaration of a state of emergency.

``I myself, the military chief, the police chief were in one voice....we would not support and openly disagreed with the issuance of an (emergency) decree,'' Mr. Bambang was quoted by the mass-circulated Kompas daily as saying.

Hectic political meetings continued in the capital today, with the Indonesian Party of Struggle (PDI-P) headed by the Vice- President, Ms. Megawati Sukarnoputri, announcing that they would support the convening of a special MPR session.

``We will tell (the Lower House of) Parliament tomorrow that we want a special session to be convened to impeach the President,'' said the PDI-P said after a meeting today.

For his part, Mr. Wahid has refused to answer the second memorandum issued by the DPR on April 30, saying that the whole process was unconstitutional.

Pro-democracy groups, meanwhile, have warned the Indonesian military (TNI) not to enter the ``political contest'' - underlining that this would be the military's single largest contribution to democratic practice.

Senior Generals, including the Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Endiartono Sutarto, have opposed the civil emergency plan which will allow him to dissolve Parliament and, consequently, avoid impeachment.

The TNI faction in the DPR voted in support of the motion to issue the first censure motion against the President earlier this year while they abstained from voting on the second memorandum. There have also been suggestions (that have been denied) that the President wants to appoint new individuals to top military jobs, but so far he has not done so.

It is clear that the DPR session comes at a crucial stage of Indonesian democracy. In all likelihood, a special session will be called given the majority those in favour of such a move enjoy. The President, however, is in no mood to go along with the sentiments of Parliament.

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Section  : International
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