Word: megawati
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...That attitude is producing a backlash at home. Students, enraged by Wahid's absence during the slaughter of the Madurese, have called for him to fly straight back from Saudi Arabia to Kalimantan. Otherwise, they've taunted, don't come back at all. Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri made a conspicuous visit to the site of the massacres at Sampit...
With or without close military support, Wahid also needs to woo back Megawati Sukarnoputri, his Vice President and leader of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle. A populist and daughter of Sukarno, the country's first leader after independence, Megawati, 54, considers Wahid to be a longtime friend. She even whips up breakfast every Wednesday for him. The President insists that Megawati still supports him, but her party certainly does not. Diplomats in Jakarta say that her party satraps are not alone in telling Megawati she must turn against Wahid; the generals also are pledging their loyalty...
...fallback, Wahid may try to mobilize his Muslim supporters. His party ranks only fourth in parliament?behind both Megawati's group and Golkar, the former ruling party of Suharto?but as leader of Nahdlatul Ulama, the country's largest Muslim religious organization, Wahid can count on more than 40 million followers, mainly in Java. The clergymen within the organization are already preparing the faithful for Wahid's hard times. In mid-December, when Wahid's troubles were mounting, 40 clerics told their congregations they had all shared a prophetic dream: Wahid was sitting atop a coconut tree in a storm...
...glove treatment Abubakar is receiving, along with an apparent reluctance to pursue other possible suspects such as Abubakar deputy Hambali Nurjaman, can probably be explained by Indonesia's complicated and unstable politics. First, Indonesia has enough turmoil to deal with, from separatist movements to communal massacres. President Megawati Sukarnoputri rules atop an unwieldy coalition of interests, and the last thing she wants to be known for is a reckless crackdown on Islamic groups. "Megawati's government is afraid of arousing Muslim sentiment if anyone is taken in without enough proof," says Hamid Basyaib, a researcher at the Akasara Foundation think...
...anti-Megawati elements in the elite may yet decide that keeping a politically crippled Wahid in office is preferable to allowing his vice president to take the top job. And some of her own supporters are counseling patience, suggesting that taking the presidency in mid-term with the economy languishing may not be the most prudent course of action. Other players, such as Amien Rais, who leads a rival Muslim party that had initially supported Wahid, have made no secret of their ambitions. And all of Indonesia's political factions are well represented in the parliament of the streets, where...