Wahid Postpones State Of Emergency

Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid (photo) withdrew his plan to declare a state of emergency yesterday to prevent opposition parties’ impeachment movement related to his corruption charge.

After a meeting with President Wahid, Security and Defense Minister Agum Gumelar remarked of the withdrawal decision. ``In three days, a process of negotiation will begin with those who want an impeachment.``

However, he added, ``If an agreement is not made, there will be a high chance of declaring a state of emergency on 31, a day before the supreme People`s Consultative Assembly (MPR) is to resume.``

It has been known that Wahid decided to back down his plan to declare a state of emergency since the outcome of the negotiation with the impeachment supporters, and the leaders of the military and the police are strongly opposing against his idea of emergency declaration, and because Wahid also knew that the efficiency of the declaration would not grantee an positive outcome.

The fact, Indonesian Prosecutors Office`s full-scale investigation on opposition parties’ leaders of corruption scandal can be interpreted as a pressing strategy by Wahid to prevent the impeachment movement.

The leader of the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P) Arifin Panigoro was arrested with a charge of accepting bribe, and Akbar Tandjung, the leader of the second-largest opposition party, Golkar, is also likely to be summoned with a charge of misappropriating political funds.

For these reasons, some leaders of the PDI-P are saying that the party should stop the impeachment movement accepting the idea of dividing political power presented by President Wahid. Some members of the Golkar and the third largest opposition party, the Unification Development Party, are insisting for the negotiation as well. Yet, there are still more number of lawmakers wanting to impeach the president.

Recently, President Wahid had presented Vice President and the Chairman of the PDI-P Megawati Sukarnoputri a plan, in which the president hands over most of the president’s power including the prerogative of the supreme command to the vice president only maintaining his title as the head of the country. However, it has been reported that the vice president rejected the idea by saying, ``Now, an impeachment is unavoidable.``

In the meantime, most of MPR members (total number of 695) gathered at a hotel in downtown Jakarta yesterday to prepare for a conference to discuss the impeachment issue, if a state of emergency is declared. The police, which had refused to arrest the police chief, said that although the president declares a state of emergency, they will not obey the president’s order, and they will rather protect the MPR members to have a general meeting.

It seems that the disobedience of the military and the police played a role for the president to decide to withdraw the declaration of a state of emergency.

Yesterday, the military and the police set up checkpoints around the MPR building to prevent terrorist acts by Wahid supporters who oppose the impeachment movement.

kkt@donga.com