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Top Wahid Aide Vows to Fight State of Emergency in Indonesia
JAKARTA, July 14 (News Agencies) - Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid's top security minister has vowed to try to stop the country's leader declaring a state of emergency to stay in power, local media reports said Saturday.
"As the coordinating minister for political, social and security affairs, I will try to stop the president from issuing the decree," the Jakarta Post quoted Agum Gumelar as saying.
Wahid warned on Friday that he would declare a state of emergency at 6 pm on July 20 if the national assembly (MPR) did not drop plans to convene an impeachment hearing against him on August 1.
The move would enable Wahid - whom his parliamentary foes accuse of incompetence and involvement in two financial scandals - to dissolve parliament.
Gumelar, a retired general, assumed his cabinet post last month after several high ranking military officials and his predecessor, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, declared their opposition to a state of emergency.
MPR chairman Amien Rais, a long-time foe of Wahid, on Friday responded to Wahid's threat by saying that should the president issue the decree, the MPR would call the impeachment session the same day, and convene on July 21.
Several local newspapers on Saturday showed front-page photographs of MPR staff preparing the voting board for the August 1 impeachment session.
The anti-Wahid Republika newspaper predicted the president could count on only 272 votes from the 700-seat assembly.
With the scheduled impeachment hearing only two weeks away, Wahid until Friday was still expressing confidence that he could reach a compromise with his political foes to avert impeachment.
"We still have (time). Hopefully within this week Mr. Hamzah, Mr. Akbar, with the assistance of Mr. Marzuki, will find a satisfactory resolution," Wahid said in West Java, according to the state Antara news agency.
Marzuki, Wahid's cabinet secretary and a member of the Golkar party of former president Suharto is helping Wahid in his attempts to talk to his foes, including Golkar chairman Akbar Tanjung and Hamzah Haz, leader of the Muslim United Development Party (PPP).
Wahid would need the support of the police to declare a civil emergency, but most analysts here predict that the police, which has only recently been separated form the armed forces, would not move without the military's approval.
On Saturday local media reports said the police appeared to be consolidating their ranks after a tumultuous month during which sacked police chief General Suroyo Bimantoro continued to refuse to step down after being fired by Wahid.
Bimantoro, who had also said he was opposed to a state of emergency, was declared inactive by Wahid, who then appointed a new deputy national police chief to take over his duties.
More than 100 senior police officers rallied to Bimantoro's side, but the president then promoted hundreds of middle-ranked police officers who had accepted the firing and urged Bimantoro to step down.
On Thursday the police crisis peaked when a presidential spokesman said Wahid had ordered Gumelar to take legal action against Bimantoro, including his possible arrest.
Bimantoro, who had been in Singapore when the legal action order was made, returned to Jakarta late on Saturday, and went straight home without making any statement, the SCTV television channel said.
Gumelar later clarified that he had neither the intention nor the authority to arrest the defiant police chief, and on Friday the Wahid-appointed deputy national police chief, General Chaeruddin Ismail, said he had no arrest order.
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