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Indonesia: Late Army Intervention In Kalimantan Will Not Save Wahid
by Kazi Mahmood
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 26 (IslamOnline) - Faced with another barrage of criticism Monday in Jakarta, where his absence is being blamed for army intervention coming a bit late in an escalating ethnic conflict in Kalimantan, observers state that Indonesia's embattled President Abdurrahman Wahid has little room left for maneuver.
This has prompted People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker Amien Rais to say that Wahid will have to quit in four months as most factions in parliament have agreed to issue a second memorandum of censure against him on May 1st.
Rais said that all factions, except for Wahid's National Awakening Party (PKB), have agreed that the House of Representatives will hold a plenary meeting on May 1st to issue another censure after the first one expires on that date.
Observers believe the failure by the government to halt the ongoing rampage in West Kalimantan and its spread to other major towns on Borneo Island, may be a turning point for Wahid's presidency.
Rais was speaking before hundreds of people attending a rally in the Central Java town of Solo.
"Gus Dur's political life will be no longer than four months. Actually, it already finished on February 1st when the House issued the first memorandum over his involvement in Buloggate and Bruneigate," Rais said.
The parliament decided to send the first censure against Wahid on February 1st, demanding the president boost his government's performance in three months or face a second memorandum.
Wahid could be impeached in a special MPR session if he ignores the two memorandums of censure.
The President has categorically denied any wrongdoing, saying the parliamentary probe into the two financial scandals - Buloggate and Bruneigate - was a systematic plot to oust him.
Rais said what happened after the first censure was "amazing" as Wahid sought to retain his presidency by any possible means.
Several observers in Jakarta, including press editors and heads of foreign corporations in Indonesia, said today that Wahid's failure to end the massacre in Kalimantan would weigh heavily against him in the coming months.
Critics state that the deterioration of conditions in Kalimantan indicates that Wahid does not have the safety of the people at heart. These observers believe Wahid should have ordered an emergency meeting in Indonesia with top generals and should have issued a shoot to kill order against those committing the violence in Kalimantan.
Only after heated criticism did Wahid on Sunday order the National Defense Forces (TNI) to send the Army Special Forces (Kopassus) to resolve the ethnic clashes in Sampit, Central Kalimantan.
"Some people are asking why we are sending special forces to the region, and the answer is that there is an urgent need for us to do that," Wahid said in Cairo at one-day summit of eight Muslim developing nations (D-8).
Critics, however, say it is too late now to save the lives of the innocents, mainly Madurese settlers in Sampit, the theatre of extreme violence for a week running.
"There is a conflict between the Madurese and the local inhabitants and there is a kind of ethnic trouble that requires Indonesian Special Forces to be sent to contain the fighting between the two sides," Wahid said.
Previously, he told police and TNI to begin cracking down on the rioters who have lives, so far numbering in the hundreds. He in turn blamed security officers in Kalimantan for the damage already done to the unity of the nation, IslamOnline was told.
Wahid bluntly attacked the security officers in Sampit and, saying, "The hesitation of the security officers is responsible for the tardiness of security forces in resolving the problem. They should have resolved it already. Therefore the police should not hesitate in asking for help from TNI."
Antara quoted Defense Minister Mahfud MD saying that Wahid ordered the military crack down as a last resort to try resolve the ethnic clashes.
Wahid is of the belief that the tension between Dayaks and Madurese settlers occasionally boils over in Kalimantan. He says the ethnic tensions are stoked by land disputes and competition for jobs.
In Kalimantan, rogue elements of indigenous Dayaks roamed the streets with knives and other crude weapons, burning, looting and killing with apparent impunity any Madurese they find on their path.
The clashes have left some 400 dead, according to latest reports, with more than 25,000 refugees waiting to be repatriated back to Madura Island.
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