Indonesia's increasingly isolated President Abdurrahman Wahid moved closer Monday to losing his job as support for an impeachment hearing grew and his popular deputy and the military made veiled attacks on his leadership.
Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri, Wahid's estranged deputy and the person who will automatically replace him should he be impeached, outlined her vision of the way Indonesia should be run in a speech to a military think-tank.
And in a slap in the face for Wahid, a newspaper poll showed that while former President Suharto may have led the country to the brink of ruin, Indonesians reckon he did a far better job.
The ex-autocrat fell from power exactly three years ago amid social chaos, leaving behind a ruinous economy and a political mess that still haunts the world's fourth most populous nation.
Megawati did not name Wahid but told the think-tank Indonesia must move on from being an authoritarian state in which power is the goal to one that emphasized democracy and put the welfare of the country's 210 million people first.
``In this new vision, the benchmark of the success of a leader is no longer measured by how big the power is he has gathered but on how his power can benefit the people,'' she said.
``The base of his legitimacy is not linked to that person or his own power, but on the people's acceptance of that person and on the performance in implementing what has been mandated,'' she added, according to a copy of her speech obtained by Reuters.
Megawati, sticking to her usual obliqueness, did not mention the physically disabled Wahid by name, but said Indonesia would become the ``sickest man'' in Asia'' if it could not solve its woes.
``At the moment we are in a critical situation. This critical situation, on the one hand, is a threat which could become the start of the break up and collapse of the nation,'' she said.
Parliament speaker Akbar Tandjung, quoted by the official Antara news agency, meanwhile said a majority of House factions would demand an impeachment hearing against Wahid over his role in two financial scandals when they meet on May 30.
A senior official from Megawati's party, quoted by the leading Tempo newsweekly, said she would not block a special session of the supreme People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).
``It is very clear that Ibu (mother) Mega is not keen on the special session,'' party secretary-general Sutjipto said in an interview published Monday.
``But if it certainly cannot be avoided and if the process is constitutional, then what else,'' he quoted her as saying.
Many Indonesians fear Wahid's removal could trigger widespread violence from his fanatical followers -- JAKARTA (Reuters)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
