Word: wahid
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...Wahid didn't need a soothsayer to read the rumbles of Merapi: he only had to look as far as Jakarta's parliament for the source of his woes. While thousands of demonstrators?some for Wahid, but most against him?bellowed at one another under a torrential downpour, the scene inside parliament was solidly against the President. His opponents and fairweather political allies censured Wahid last Thursday for his alleged involvement in two corruption scandals, involving a total of more than $6 million. That may seem like small change compared with the billions that vanished from government coffers during...
Javanese rulers have long gazed upon an eruption of Mount Merapi as an omen of troubled times ahead. So when the central Java volcano began sputtering and oozing lava early last week, many Indonesians recognized a portent of ill tidings for President Abdurrahman Wahid, the nearly blind 60-year-old Muslim cleric who has fitfully governed the country for the past 15 months...
...carefully staged television interview, Wahid solemnly insisted: "All of the information about the two cases is absolutely not true." He added, "I'm not involved in anything." At least one influential viewer, however, remained unconvinced. Amien Rais, head of the People's Consultative Assembly, the upper house of parliament, told Time that Wahid must resign, saying: "He has trampled on his oath as a leader...
That rebuke is a possible first step in an impeachment process that could drag on for months. Wahid may be required to defend himself first in writing and then by enduring a public skewering from hostile legislators. Alternatively, the climax could come a lot sooner: Wahid's adversaries are trying to convene a special session of the People's Consultative Assembly, which has the power to oust him. Either way, Wahid could face political ruin unless he can quickly mend ties with parliament...
That won't be easy. Since Suharto's fall in 1998, Indonesia has been left with a political system in which it's unclear who holds more power: the President or parliament. Wahid believes he holds the trump card; parliament sees things differently. Wahid's style isn't helping his cause. Even close friends use words like "arrogant" and "disdainful" to describe his attitude, which may be traced partly to his upbringing. An Islamic scholar, fluent in five languages, Wahid descends from a line of Javanese holy men, and it is difficult to convince him that he is not infallible...