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Wahid Resists Censure
WASHINGTON & JAKARTA, Feb 2 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A resistant Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid on Friday rejected a call to step down after being hit with a politically damaging censure by parliament over two financial scandals.
The Parliament voted overwhelmingly to censure Wahid on Thursday, leaving the Southeast Asian nation, long wracked by violence and economic crisis, facing months of political turmoil.
"No, I will not resign. I'm here as a president and I will remain a president until my term ends" in 2004, the 60-year-old Wahid told a Muslim congregation after Friday prayers here.
In the president's first statement since the censure was handed down, Wahid said the move was "a lesson in democracy," and added that it was based on a flawed report by a parliamentary commission, CNN reports. "The data from the commission is not based on the facts," he added.
Adding that the conflicts between himself and parliament were part of a democratic learning curve, Wahid said, "I apologize to the people for the inconvenience created during the current process of political education and the events at the parliament."
Presidential spokesman Wimar Witoelar also said Wahid now felt free to push ahead with reforms without having to make political compromises.
Wahid also continued to insist on his innocence in the two multi-million-dollar financial scandals - one dubbed Bulogate and the other Bruneigate - and said he was disappointed with parliament's acceptance of a report which found he "may have been involved" in them.
Witoelar said Wahid would meet the legislature's demands to explain his role in the scandals. If he does not do so within 90 days, the legislature can censure him again. A month after that it can start impeachment proceedings.
Bulogate concerns the theft of $3.9 million from the state food agency Bulog, allegedly by Wahid's masseur, Alip Agung Suwondo.
Bruneigate centers on Wahid's lack of accounting over a $2 million donation from the Sultan of Brunei that Wahid has claimed was a personal gift.
The Indonesian press on Friday quoted several political observers joining mounting calls for Wahid to resign voluntarily and hand over to his vice president Megawati Sukarnoputri.
"It's better for [Wahid] to resign than wait until the MPR [upper house] sets up a special session to impeach him," influential Muslim scholar Nurcholish Madjid told the Jakarta Post.
Several executives of Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) suggested a compromise. Wahid, they said, should step aside not down, leaving Megawati to run the government.
"The throne will stay in his hands as we will still respect him as a president. But let the whole management be controlled by Mega who will become the ad interim president," PDIP executive Jacob Tobing told the Post.
Wahid, a virtually-blind Muslim scholar, was elected in October 1999, defeating front-runner Megawati, his friend, thanks to the support of an alliance of Muslim parties and the former ruling Golkar party.
Parliament on Friday was drafting a written form of Thursday's censure in which it deemed Wahid had "violated his oath of office and a national assembly decree on clean governance" over Bulogate and Bruneigate.
With the vast majority of lawmakers against him, Wahid's political survival hinges largely on the continuing support of his deputy, Megawati Sukarnoputri. She has yet to comment, but her party - the largest in parliament - led the charge against him along with the Golkar Party of former dictator Suharto.
At the day's close, the only protestors on the streets of the capital were some 1,500 Muslim students; most of them veiled women, who marched peacefully to the palace, shouting "Force Wahid to step down now."
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