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Indonesia's Wahid Appoints New Security Minister
Jakarta, June 2 (News Agencies) - Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid swore in a new top security minister and a deputy national deputy chief on Saturday, following a sudden cabinet reshuffle that analysts see as part of last-ditch efforts to ward off impeachment, news agencies said.
Wahid also released his national police chief from his duties after he refused to resign, and threatened to slap insubordination charges against a resentful police force if it did not accept the new deputy as their commander.
The swearing in followed a cabinet reshuffle Friday, which also saw the ouster of Attorney General Marzuki Darusman and five other changes.
Wahid first swore in new coordinating minister for politics, social and security affairs, Agum Gumelar, a retired general to replace outgoing Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Indonesia's Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who stands to replace Wahid if he resigns or is ousted, usually swears in officials in place of the 60-year-old clinically blind president.
But on Saturday she was conspicuous by her absence from the ceremony at the presidential palace, despite being seen as an ally of Gumelar.
Megawati was not consulted by Wahid over the reshuffle according to what one of the president's aides has said.
Wahid personally swore in the new deputy chief of the national police force, Commissioner General Chaeruddin Ismail, despite a decree abolishing the post.
In the decree appointing Ismail, Wahid also decommissioned National Police Chief General Suroyo Bimantoro who refused to relinquish his command.
"The national police chief demanded to be non-activated. The ranks of the police should accept this and whoever does not will be considered to be insubordinate," Wahid said.
According to Indonesian law, the president can only replace a national police chief with the approval of the country's lower house, the People's Representative Council (DPR).
Wahid had aready angered the DPR, with whom he has been at loggerheads since early in his presidency, for replacing then police chief General Rusdiharjo without consulting them in 1999.
Meanwhile, Indonesia's National Police Spokesman Did Widayadi indicated in a press conference Saturday that a full-scale revolt was brewing in the police over Bimantoro's sacking, news agencies said.
"Support from officers is increasing, from top, mid-level and low-level officers," Widayadi said.
Wahid, the countries first democratically head of state, launched Friday a counter-attack against his foes, a day after the national assembly fixed August 1 for an impeachment hearing against him.
Citing threats to the survival of the world's fourth largest nation of over 210 million people, Wahid, in rapid succession, reshuffled the cabinet, repeated threats to impose an emergency, sacked Yudhoyono and Darusman and asked Bimantoro to resign, news agencies said.
Analysts give Wahid little chance of surviving the impeachment hearing, called to consider his ouster over two financial scandals and a term in office that has lurched from crisis to crisis.
Should he declare a state of emergency, Wahid could dissolve parliament and call a snap election, although many legislators have said they would accelerate the impeachment process instead.
The process that started with charges of corruption against Wahid has now become a classic power struggle.
Nineteen months after it unexpectedly propelled Abdurrahman Wahid into the presidency, Indonesia's parliament is trying to force him out again.
Wahid says the upper house of parliament, the People's Consultative Assembly or MPR, selected him as head of state and must allow him to get on with the job.
He cites in his support the county's 1945 constitution, which entrusts the position of president with key powers and responsibilities.
However, parliament says the procedure by which the president is elected - by a vote of members of the People's Consultative Assembly - makes the president directly accountable to that house, and indeed to parliament as a whole.
Wahid rejected calls for him to appear before parliament to answer charges of corruption. Now he is unwilling to answer the newer and more vague formulation that he should be impeached for his "persistently erratic and sometimes dangerous performance".
He insists he will stay in office until the end of his term in 2004.
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