Megawati new President; Parliament votes out Wahid

By Amit Baruah

HANOI, JULY 23.Ms. Megawati Sukarnoputri took over as the fifth President of Indonesia after the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) unanimously voted today to oust Mr. Abdurrahman Wahid from the country's top job.

The 54-year-old daughter of Indonesia's first President, Sukarno, Ms. Megawati is the first woman to become the President of this archipaelagic nation of 220 million people. At the end of a day- long session, which proceeded peacefully, the Upper House of Indonesia's Parliament voted to revoke the mandate given to Mr. Wahid in October 1999 and then proceeded to appoint Ms. Megawati as the new President in his place.

Ms. Megawati, who took the oath of office in front of hundreds of MPR members in Jakarta this evening, will now have to deal with the fallout of Mr. Wahid refusing to ``step aside''. Her party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), is the largest faction in Parliament. However, as expected, the declaration of a ``state of emergency'' by Mr. Wahid last night had little effect, but to advance the MPR session by one hour this morning. His ``emergency decree'' was also deemed illegal by the Supreme Court, a ruling Mr. Wahid has contested on technical grounds.

The ousted President, a scholar and intellectual, was voted out in tragic circumstances - refusing to quit even under the most adverse of circumstances - lacking in support from the very State structure he presided over. His last few television appearances were pitiable, a weak, blind man, talking tough to his audience, but probably aware that his words were having little effect. While Indonesian markets have hit the highest in 10 months, the state of the nation hardly inspires confidence given the separatist troubles in three major provinces of the Republic.

In her acceptance speech in the MPR, the new President acknowledged the difficulties that she would have to face. Declaring her allegiance to the 1945 Constitution, Ms. Megawati said she would dedicate herself to the task of nation-building. ``I am very conscious that the work ahead of me will not be easy,'' Ms. Megawati stated. There is a need, she said, to come out quickly from the crisis facing the country. The new President also acknowledged that there was a sense of tiredness in the country. ``I understand that goodwill is not enough to resolve Indonesia's problems,'' she said, calling upon all sections to accept the democratic process in the country. Here, it would appear, Ms. Megawati was calling upon Mr. Wahid, his political faction and the Nadhlatul Ulama (the former President's power base) to accept the decisions taken by the MPR today.

Addressing ``all the people of Indonesia'', in a speech that was carried live on television, a confident-sounding Ms. Megawati, reading from a prepared text, said everyone should look forward to the construction of a united Indonesia. The military, the police, the legislature and the judiciary have all backed Ms. Megawati to the hilt as a mercurial Mr. Wahid squandered the goodwill that he had after taking over as President in October 1999 - the first exercise of the ballot by the Indonesian people in 50 years. His inability to deal with the legacy of General Suharto, the inability of the State apparatus to bring the former dictator and his family to account and a general failure to address the pressing economic problems of the people led to a demand for change in the country.

However, it must be said for the record that Suharto's men continue to dominate the State structure in the country despite being ``out of power'' and Ms. Megawati may encounter some of the same problems that Mr. Wahid failed to resolve. The case of Mr. Tommy Suharto, the youngest son of the former dictator, perhaps sums the Indonesian crisis the best. Convicted by a court, Tommy remains at large in Indonesia with the police making only proforma efforts to track down the ``absconder''. In a typical demonstration of Mr. Wahid's bizarre ways, just before Tommy vanished into the blue, he had a ``meeting'' with Mr. Suharto's youngest son, raising the hackles of the democratically-minded in Indonesia.

In spite of all his idiosyncrasies, the ``soft touch'' approach of Mr. Wahid to complex issues in Aceh and Irian Jaya did find appreciation. His sacking of Gen. Wiranto, the powerful military chief, was greeted with tremendous approval. As Ms. Megawati enters Mr. Wahid's shoes, there is every likelihood that Indonesia will move from a ``soft touch'' to a ``hard-handed'' approach. The new President is known to be close to the military and is likely to allow them a much greater say in addressing the separatist problems in Aceh and Irian Jaya.

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