Wahid threatens to impose emergency

By Amit Baruah

SINGAPORE, JUNE 27. The Indonesian President, Mr. Abdurrahman Wahid, has threatened to impose a state of emergency if the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) does not back off from its promise to call him to account.

The President, who was in Australia till this morning, made the ``threat'' during a radio interview in Sydney. Mr. Wahid has described his visit to Australia, the first by an Indonesian President since 1975, as ``symbolic'' in the context of the troubled relations between the two neighbours. Both in the radio interview, and later while talking to reporters in New Zealand, his next stop, the President was clear about his intent to go ahead with plans to declare a state of emergency. ``I know Indonesia and the people as well as the armed forces are behind me,'' Mr. Wahid was quoted as saying.

Addressing a press conference in Christchurch, the President refused to give any time-frame for his emergency plan, saying only that he would do it if efforts for peaceful reconciliation fail. ``I don't want to divulge this thing because it will be out of its surprise element,'' Mr. Wahid said about the timing of a possible emergency declaration.

The response from the military in Jakarta was swift to the latest comments made by the President. ``The Army calls on the President not to declare a state of emergency,'' the army spokesman, Brigadier General Franciscus Bachtiar, was quoted as saying. To a question if the military would obey a directive from the President to dissolve the Assembly, the spokesman said: ``If the impeachment session (planned for August 1) goes ahead, we will join with the police and secure the event.'' So, the military's intent is clear. It will not back the President but, instead, work to ensure that the MPR's impeachment session goes ahead without a problem.

In his radio interview, the President said he would only go before the MPR if the House did not raise the issue of his accountability. And what would he do if the MPR went ahead with its plans? ``It's easy. I (will) just declare an emergency,'' he told the radio. In response to another question, the President told the interviewer not to believe those people who thought that imposition of the emergency would bring disaster to the country.

Mr. Wahid, however, was clear that the military would follow his orders, a statement that was contradicted by the army spokesman in Jakarta.

The President said he would ``freeze'' the Parliament and the MPR and then call for elections maybe in a year under a new proportional representation system. Asked if there was still a chance of his striking a deal with the Vice- President, Ms. Megawati Sukarnoputri, and his then staying on as a titular Head of State, Mr. Wahid pointed out that such a proposal was against the Constitution.

However, the President held out the option of a ``political deal'' not just with Ms. Megawati, but the five major political parties. On balance, it would appear that such a deal had little chance of succeeding though one of the President's Ministers has been ``deputed'' to discuss such a plan with other political parties. With the President sticking stubbornly to his guns and the MPR adamant about calling him to account and possibly impeaching him, a conflict between the executive and the Parliament in Indonesia appears inevitable.

The President's foreign trip to Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines at a time when the country is steeped in political uncertainty has come under fire from different sections in Indonesia. Mr. Wahid, who will be in the Philippines tomorrow after completing his New Zealand visit, is expected to be back in Indonesia on Friday.

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