Wahid renews emergency threat

By Amit Baruah

SINGAPORE, JULY 13. Elite Indonesian police personnel backed away from their chief's house as the President, Mr. Abdurrahman Wahid, once again declared his intention to declare a state of emergency in the country.

The President said he would go ahead with plans to clamp a state of emergency on July 20 if Parliamentarians did not drop plans to oust him. The crisis that developed last night around the arrest of the police chief, Gen. Suroyo Bimantoro, seemed to have blown over after the Cabinet Secretary, Mr. Marzuki Darusman, claimed that no formal arrest ``order'' had been issued by the President. It appeared clear that the Government, faced with a defiant police establishment, decided not to make the arrest of Gen. Bimantoro a major issue.

In another development, it appeared that the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) was prepared to advance its special session to call for Mr. Wahid's accountability if the President took any other steps to block the session. ``If at any time President Abdurrahman Wahid issues a decree of emergency or disperses the Parliament...a day after the decree is issued, we will hold the impeachment session,'' the MPR Speaker, Mr. Amien Rais, was quoted as saying. For his part, the President said today: ``On July 20, at 1800, I will declare the country in an emergency because the supreme MPR violates the Constitution.'' However, given the fact that the President is unable to get the police to do his bidding, it is highly improbable that the military will support his emergency enterprise. The possibility of a political compromise ahead of the MPR session, still scheduled for August 1, seems remote.

The Vice-President, Ms. Megawati Sukarnoputri, once regarded as close to Mr. Wahid, is reported to have said it was becoming difficult to work with an erratic President. Ms. Megawati is set to succeed Mr. Wahid as President in case he is impeached by the MPR.

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Section  : International
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