Survival of the Fiercest

Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid prides himself on being a master of brinkmanship. This time, however, the blind Muslim cleric seems to have plunged over the edge. In the face of an impeachment hearing before the country’s supreme legislative body, the irascible Wahid has antagonized everyone who could possibly prop him up.

These are dark times for Indonesian democracy. Wahid, 61, is the country’s first democratically elected President in more than 30 years, and he came into office as a deal maker and reformer. Now he stands charged with misconduct and corruption–to the tune of $6 million. But Wahid’s real failing is his sheer cussedness. He cannot get on with anybody, even his own revolving Cabinet, which has seen the departure of 22 ministers since he assumed office in November 1999. Most dangerously, his autocratic ways have distanced him from Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri and from the powerful Indonesian military and police forces.

Wahid can ill afford this in-your-face attitude. His tiny National Awakening Party (pkb) holds only a fraction of votes in the 695-member People’s Consultative Assembly, which is meeting this week to decide Wahid’s fate. The other parties, especially Megawati’s Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) and the former ruling Golkar party, are all gunning for him.

Cornered, and increasingly erratic, Wahid is making ominous threats. He refuses to attend the special legislative session that is hauling him up for accountability. He claims it is “illegal.” Instead, he declared menacingly last Saturday: “Don’t blame me if the crowd takes care of things by themselves.”

But Wahid is dangerously ignorant as to how few Indonesians support him. Blinded by a 1998 stroke, he can no longer read a newspaper or government briefing. Former advisers joke that as the political crisis deepens, Wahid spends more time talking to the dead than to the living. He regularly visits the tombs of Javanese Muslim holy men, for otherworldly consultation. As one ex-minister complains: “Sometimes we’ll agree on something, and then he’ll change his mind completely after one of his dreams or a visit from the spirits.”

With the counsel of spirits failing him, Wahid has cast around for armed backup. Last week, he vowed to impose a state of emergency that would dissolve parliament before it could impeach him. Like many of Wahid’s threats, this one turned out to be a bluff. Even though the constitution is vague on who has more power–both the President and parliament claim the upper hand–neither the military nor the national police sided with Wahid.

That spelled trouble. If he was going to whip up mass protest in Jakarta–and intimidate the legislators trying to oust him–Wahid needed a new police chief. But typical of the confusion now reigning, police chief General Suroyo Bimantoro refused to step down when Wahid fired him. In a hurried ceremony at the palace on Friday afternoon, in which the presidential band seemed to rush through their tunes in double time, Wahid swore in a glum-faced General Chaeruddin Ismail as “temporary” police chief.

Temporary may be right. Ismail may be Indonesia’s shortest-serving head cop. Akbar Tandjung, House Speaker and leader of the former ruling Golkar party, claimed that the President had no constitutional right to fire Bimantoro without getting parliamentary approval. Parliamentarians used this as a pretext to push forward the Aug. 1 impeachment hearing to July 23. In fact, Wahid’s foes were expecting his preemptive strike and had already summoned the 695 delegates to Jakarta and installed them in a luxury hotel a short walk from parliament. Meanwhile, the impasse over having two rival chiefs has caused a fissure within the 40,000-strong security force that is on high alert in the Indonesian capital.

Until his latest battle, Wahid has proved adept at personal survival if not at running his 21-month-old government. No longer. The President’s often caustic insults have riled Megawati, and now she is heeding advice from supporters to oust him. “They never talk about anything substantial anymore,” says Pramono Agung. “In Cabinet meetings, she’ll politely ask about Wahid’s blood pressure. That’s all.” These days, Wahid’s blood pressure is undoubtedly climbing, and so are political passions around the country.