Muslim-Based Party Urges Indonesian President To Follow Reform Agenda
JAKARTA (News Agencies) - The leader of Indonesia's Islam-based Justice Party on Saturday warned President Abdurrahman Wahid to stick to the path of reform or risk losing the support of the people.
"We will keep on supporting Gus Dur [Wahid's nickname] so long as he follows the reform agenda," party president Hidayat Nurwahid told a crowd of thousands of party supporters at Jakarta's central national Monument square.
"When we see the decrease in the people's support for Gus Dur it only reflects what he has sown," said Nurwahid, whose party is a member of the so-called Axis Force, some of whom are calling for Wahid to step down.
The party leader criticized Wahid's government for failing to catch the fugitive son of former president Suharto, who has been on the run from the law for more than two months, and for not bringing Suharto himself to trial for corruption.
The rally came after hundreds of people picketed the national parliament here for three straight days calling on Wahid to publicly account for two financial scandals in which he is implicated, or step down.
A parliamentary commission is seeking to question Wahid over a $3.9 million embezzlement scam allegedly pulled off by his masseur, and the fate of a $2 million donation from the Sultan of Brunei, which the president claims was a personal gift.
Anti-Wahid demonstrations in Jakarta have been matched in East Java, a Wahid stronghold, with protests in support of the president by members of the Nahdlatul Ulama Muslim Organization he once led.
