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Indonesian Parliament Races Ahead With Wahid Impeachment
JAKARTA, July 21 (News Agencies) - Indonesia's parliament raced ahead with impeachment proceedings against President Abdurrahman Wahid Saturday and prepared to proclaim his vice president as their new leader next week.
After a months-long political standoff, the national assembly (MPR) in two open votes decided with lightning speed to call a snap impeachment session and to summon the politically-isolated Wahid to the house on Monday.
Faction after faction rose in turn to criticize Wahid, the country's first democratically elected president, for his alleged misrule and for replacing the national police chief without their approval.
They then voted almost unanimously to bring the impeachment session forward to Saturday, from its original date of August 1.
The powerful military faction was given a standing ovation when it unanimously backed the impeachment session vote, after which MPs rose to their feet and sang the national anthem.
MPR chairman Amien Rais then confidently brushed off Wahid's threat to declare a state of emergency and dissolve parliament, saying no one would back him.
"If he imposes a decree, for example to dissolve the parliament, or to implement a state of emergency, basically it will be ignored by the majority of people," he said.
Rais also predicted Wahid's impeachment could come as soon as Tuesday, and that Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri - the daughter of the country's founding president Sukarno - would automatically replace him.
"When Abdurrahman is impeached, then at the same minute the vice president will be installed as the new president, so that there is no vacuum of leadership," Rais told reporters.
Asked when the transfer might take place, Rais replied: "I think Tuesday, evening, not before."
Wahid will be asked on Monday to account for his 21-month rule. A rejection of the account would effectively mean impeachment.
Wahid said earlier Saturday that he would boycott Monday's session, which he considered "illegal".
Rais predicted that if Wahid did not attend the session, he would be voted out of office anyway.
"If he does not (show up) almost automatically the nine factions, the majority of the members, will vote him out.
"But we have to listen to the factions' opinions first before coming to the final conclusion ... probably on Tuesday."
Wahid, who has repeatedly threatened to declare a state of emergency, which would allow him to dissolve parliament and call early elections if the impeachment session went ahead, sounded less certain after the vote.
In his hastily-convened second press conference of the day, he said he would not resign, predicted he would survive, and said he would take a decision on an emergency in "one or two days."
"I must admit it isn't an easy matter," he added.
Alvin Lie, an MP with the National Mandate Party (PAN), also told AFP he did not think Wahid could impose a state of emergency.
"You can't do something if you don't have the power to do it. Even if he does declare the state of emergency I believe he does not have the instruments to enforce it," Lie said.
Lie was referring to vocal opposition from the country's leading police and military generals to any declaration of an emergency, and the military's unanimous backing for the impeachment session.
A civilian emergency would involve the police, but not the armed forces.
Megawati, whose Indonesian Democracy Party for Struggle (PDIP) has been in the forefront of the push to impeach Wahid, was nowhere to be seen Saturday, and aides said she was attending a family gathering.
Wahid, a near-blind Muslim scholar, has seen the wide support he commanded when elected in October 1999 crumble during his erratic rule, the last months of which have been spent battling the hostile parliament.
The parliament accuses him of misrule and suspected involvement in two financial scandals, charges which he denies.
He has continued to insist - like his political party which boycotted Saturday's session and labeled it an attempted "coup d'etat" - that an impeachment hearing is against the country's sketchy 1945 constitution.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Wahid's National Awakening Party (PKB) was sacked on Saturday for attending the session on the president's impeachment.
PKB legislators boycotted the session, but PKB chairman Matori Abdul Jalil was present in his capacity as a deputy speaker although he did not vote.
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