[Indonesia semakin getir sekarang ini dan begitu banyak mendapat liputan akhbar seluruh dunia. Pejuang reformasi harus menitip perkara ini kerana Mahathir juga turut menelitinya. Wahid semakin ketiadaan kawan sejak akhir-akhir ini - baik dari kabinetnya sendiri mahupun polis atau tentera. Rakyat pula semakin bijak dan cerdik walaupun beberapa bom diletupkan untuk menggegarkan suasana agar rakyat tertipu dengannya. Wahid mengugut ancaman huru-hara jika menolaknya tetapi itu nampaknya sudah tidak laku kerana dialah pencetus huru-hara sebenarnya.

Mahathir seharusnya sedar dia semakin kehilangan sokongan - cuma ia belum jelas ternyata sahaja. Jika satu bom politik meletus, semua akan menjauhinya dan dia bakal tinggal bersendirian juga untuk mengikut jejak seperti Wahid juga.....
- Editor]

http://www.time.com/time/asia/ news/magazine/0,9754,168503,00.html

A Nation (Still) in Waiting

As parliament begins impeachment proceedings, Indonesian President Wahid is finally out of allies

BY TIM MCGIRK/JAKARTA

UPDATE: Indonesia's top legislative body has almost unanimously voted to reject President Wahid's early morning state of emergency

Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid prides himself on being a master of brinkmanship. This time, however, the blind Muslim cleric seems to have plunged over the edge. In the face of an impeachment hearing before the country's supreme legislative body, the irascible Wahid has antagonized everyone who could possibly prop him up.

These are dark times for Indonesian democracy. Wahid, 61, is the country's first democratically elected President in more than 30 years, and he came into office as a deal maker and reformer. Now he stands charged with misconduct and corruption--to the tune of $6 million. But Wahid's real failing is his sheer cussedness. He cannot get on with anybody, even his own revolving Cabinet, which has seen the departure of 22 ministers since he assumed office in November 1999. Most dangerously, his autocratic ways have distanced him from Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri and from the powerful Indonesian military and police forces.

Wahid can ill afford this in-your-face attitude. His tiny National Awakening Party (pkb) holds only a fraction of votes in the 695-member People's Consultative Assembly, which is meeting this week to decide Wahid's fate. The other parties, especially Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) and the former ruling Golkar party, are all gunning for him.

Cornered, and increasingly erratic, Wahid is making ominous threats. He refuses to attend the special legislative session that is hauling him up for accountability. He claims it is "illegal." Instead, he declared menacingly last Saturday: "Don't blame me if the crowd takes care of things by themselves."

But Wahid is dangerously ignorant as to how few Indonesians support him. Blinded by a 1998 stroke, he can no longer read a newspaper or government briefing. Former advisers joke that as the political crisis deepens, Wahid spends more time talking to the dead than to the living. He regularly visits the tombs of Javanese Muslim holy men, for otherworldly consultation. As one ex-minister complains: "Sometimes we'll agree on something, and then he'll change his mind completely after one of his dreams or a visit from the spirits."

With the counsel of spirits failing him, Wahid has cast around for armed backup. Last week, he vowed to impose a state of emergency that would dissolve parliament before it could impeach him. Like many of Wahid's threats, this one turned out to be a bluff. Even though the constitution is vague on who has more power--both the President and parliament claim the upper hand--neither the military nor the national police sided with Wahid.

That spelled trouble. If he was going to whip up mass protest in Jakarta--and intimidate the legislators trying to oust him--Wahid needed a new police chief. But typical of the confusion now reigning, police chief General Suroyo Bimantoro refused to step down when Wahid fired him. In a hurried ceremony at the palace on Friday afternoon, in which the presidential band seemed to rush through their tunes in double time, Wahid swore in a glum-faced General Chaeruddin Ismail as "temporary" police chief.

Temporary may be right. Ismail may be Indonesia's shortest-serving head cop. Akbar Tandjung, House Speaker and leader of the former ruling Golkar party, claimed that the President had no constitutional right to fire Bimantoro without getting parliamentary approval. Parliamentarians used this as a pretext to push forward the Aug. 1 impeachment hearing to July 23. In fact, Wahid's foes were expecting his preemptive strike and had already summoned the 695 delegates to Jakarta and installed them in a luxury hotel a short walk from parliament. Meanwhile, the impasse over having two rival chiefs has caused a fissure within the 40,000-strong security force that is on high alert in the Indonesian capital.

Until his latest battle, Wahid has proved adept at personal survival if not at running his 21-month-old government. No longer. The President's often caustic insults have riled Megawati, and now she is heeding advice from supporters to oust him. "They never talk about anything substantial anymore," says Pramono Agung. "In Cabinet meetings, she'll politely ask about Wahid's blood pressure. That's all." These days, Wahid's blood pressure is undoubtedly climbing, and so are political passions around the country.

With reporting by Jason Tedjasukmana/Jakarta

http://asia.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/ southeast/07/22/indonesia.emergency/index.html

Power showdown carries Megawati closer

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri looks set to take over as Indonesia's new leader amid a showdown between legislators and the
struggling president.

Lawmakers were holding an impeachment hearing Monday. But even if the country's top legislative assembly sacks him, President Abdurrahman Wahid refuses to step aside.

"Yes, he'll stay," presidential spokesman Yahya Staquf told reporters when asked whether Wahid would go.

Wahid faced a speedy impeachment hearing after he attempted to stave off the process with a declaration of a state of emergency, made at 1 a.m. Monday (2 p.m. Sunday EDT).

In reaction, the chairman of the People's Consultative Assembly, Amien Rais, said the assembly would ignore Wahid's decree and meet to remove the president, probably within hours.

There was concern at the reaction of the military and police but both voted to reject Wahid's order to shut down the legislature and the proceedings. Instead, troops and tanks were deployed to protect legislators.

Lawmakers have sought to impeach Wahid over his poor management of the economy and his involvement in graft scandals, with Wahid denying any wrongdoing.

'Extraordinary action'

In an apparent attempt to stave off impeachment moves, Wahid made his move early on Monday, ordering the disbanding of both houses of parliament and calling for elections next year.

Wahid also called for a state of emergency to go into effect later in the day, even though the country's police chief had vowed not to implement it.

Wahid said the civil emergency was the only way to save Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, because his enemies have thrown their support behind his chief rival, Megawati.

"If these things are not stopped soon, it will destroy the united nation of Indonesia," he said.

"Therefore, with faith and responsibility to save the country and the nation and based on the will of most Indonesians, I, as a head of the nation, am forced to take extraordinary action.

The statement of the ailing, half-blind Wahid was read by an aide after the president made introductory comments at the heavily protected and barricaded presidential palace.

Ministers defiant

But at least six ministers abandoned Wahid's cabinet and quit in protest early Monday morning against his decree.

Wahid, who has steadfastly refused to step down over allegations of corruption and incompetence, remained at the presidential palace.

Soon after the decree was made, Rais said the assembly would proceed earlier than planned with Wahid's impeachment, and the meeting began at 8 a.m. Monday (9 p.m. Sunday EDT).

"I believe that the absolute majority of the members of the assembly will come to a conclusion that [Wahid] must step down ? he will be dismissed by the assembly," Rais told CNN.

Soon after the assembly gathered, legislators almost unanimously rejected Wahid's declaration of a state of emergency.

Significantly, all 38 members of the military and police faction rejected Wahid's last-ditch attempt to hang on to power.

A vote in the assembly showed 599 legislators out of 601 members opposed Wahid's state of emergency and an order for the top legislative body to disband.

Quiet streets

Jakarta was largely deserted in the early hours of the morning following Wahid's command. There were no signs of unusual troop movements and the presidential palace had no more than the regular guards by the front entrance.

But on Sunday, dozens of tanks and armored vehicles and nearly 2,000 troops paraded past the presidential palace in the largest show of force in years.

This took place just hours after at least 45 people -- including an 11-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl -- were injured in two explosions shortly after morning services at two churches in east Jakarta.

Police said they suspected groups trying to further destabilize the political situation were responsible for the attacks.

Lawmakers sour

The assembly elected Wahid, 61, over Megawati in October 1999.

Initially, the nearly blind Muslim scholar enjoyed wide support amid hopes he would deliver economic and democratic reforms after years of corrupt dictatorship.

But relations quickly soured with lawmakers, who accused him of erratic policies and claimed that he was too frail after a series of strokes.

He also failed to quell communal and separatist conflicts that have killed thousands across the sprawling archipelago.

Corruption continued to flourish and attempts to prosecute those guilty of graft, including former dictator Suharto, mostly came to nothing.

Denial of wrongdoing

Moves to impeach Wahid were launched last year after he was accused of involvement in two multimillion-dollar graft scandals. He was cleared by police and prosecutors.

But legislators pressed ahead with their campaign against him and censured the president three times this year as a prelude to formal impeachment proceedings.

Wahid also antagonized the military by sidelining several top generals accused of rights violations and graft.