Wahid renews emergency threat

By Amit Baruah

SINGAPORE, JULY 19. The Indonesian President, Mr. Abdurrahman Wahid, has said that he would ``impose'' a state of emergency in the country tomorrow, but delay its implementation till July 31 - the day a special session of Parliament is scheduled to begin.

``Efforts have been made in the direction of a political compromise. But I cannot tell you the details since developments are taking place on an hour-to-hour basis,'' the President was quoted as saying today.

However, some legislators from the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) have said that the special session would be advanced if Mr. Wahid went ahead with his threat to impose a state of emergency. The apparent decision of the President to ``impose'' an emergency, but not implement the decree also looks to be a face- saving device for Mr. Wahid, given his unilateral deadline of July 20 announced earlier.

In the present circumstances, it is clear that the President does not enjoy the support of the military and the police without which the imposition of the emergency would become meaningless. In fact, not only are the military and police brass not supporting Mr. Wahid but they have made plain their decision to secure the MPR session - a clear indication on which side of the political divide they stand.

The MPR Speaker, Mr. Amien Rais, one of those who has played a major role in the likely impeachment of the President, said: ``I don't think any compromise still has a chance.''

``He is counting the days,'' Mr. Amien said in a reference to Mr. Wahid. However, the House of Representatives Speaker and Golkar party leader, Mr. Akbar Tandjung, has leapt into the compromise arena and has met with close associates of Mr. Wahid recently.

Mr. Akbar said the agenda had been discussed with the President's associates which included the hand-over of daily affair of Government to the Vice-President, Ms. Megawati Sukarnoputri. The Golkar leader said he had conveyed the contents of his discussions to Ms. Megawati and Mr. Amien Rais. Mr. Akbar admitted that he did not get any response from Ms. Megawati. ``I have been mooting this (compromise) idea for two months now. There was a chance for me to develop the suggestion, so I did. But we did not get any agreement.''

There appears to be little doubt that the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) headed by Ms. Megawati is in no mood for a compromise. In fact, such a compromise arrangement has no place in the Indonesian Constitution. Also, a previous attempt at giving the Vice-President the powers to run the Government by the President did not work.

Ms. Megawati has the perfect opportunity to take over as President. It seems highly unlikely that she would want to arrive at a compromise and lose the opportunity to impeach Mr. Wahid.

From the Golkar point of view, these efforts at trying to arrange a grand compromise could well be aimed at Mr. Akbar trying to secure the job of Vice-President with support from the PDI-P.

The waffling on the part of Golkar could well be aimed at eliciting support from Ms. Megawati on the crucial issue of who will be the next Vice-President.

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