After a day of high-wire brinkmanship, Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid Friday suspended a threat to declare emergency rule, hours before his deadline for parliament to drop moves to force him from office.
Instead, the embattled president said he would declare the emergency on July 31, the eve of a planned impeachment session by the national assembly (MPR), if no political compromise was reached by then.
"On July 31 at 6:00 in the evening if no political compromise can be reached, there will be a state of danger (declared)," Wahid said.
But by late evening a hostile national assembly (MPR) was still locked in debate as to whether to declare a snap impeachment session Saturday after Wahid appointed on Friday afternoon a de facto new national police chief without parliamentary approval.
The appointment of General Chaeruddin Ismail as temporary national police chief "is, let us say, just a trick because in practice, he will have the full authority of a legal national police chief," MPR chairman Amien Rais said.
"Therefore I am virtually certain that the MPR will, God willing, collectively decide to hold the special session tomorrow (Saturday) at 9:00 am if not 10:30 am," Rais said.
But he said a final decision would not be made until 8:30 pm (1330 GMT) Friday night.
Wahid, the country's first freely-elected president, had repeatedly threatened to declare a state of emergency at 6:00 pm (1100 GMT) on Friday, dissolve parliament and call elections to avoid impeachment.
The MPR had counter-threatened to ignore any dissolution of parliament and proceed with a snap impeachment session anyway.
Wahid is scheduled to appear before the national assembly on August 1 to face an impeachment session over incompetence and corruption allegations, which he denies.
Throughout the day in Jakarta police helicopters clattered overhead as the battle of wits between parliament and the president was played out, and 42,000 police were on standby across the city in case of trouble.
But by nightfall no violence had been reported.
The installation of Ismail, who has been deputy national police chief since June 2, followed the refusal of outgoing police chief Suroyo Bimantoro to hand over his command, despite being fired by Wahid.
The country's senior military and police officers oppose any declaration of emergency. The MPR has also warned Wahid that he would be immediately impeached if he tried to dissolve parliament.
Wahid has demanded the national assembly gives him a written guarantee by July 30 that they will not impeach him.
"There must be such a guarantee in black and white" or the country will be slapped under a state of emergency, the state Antara news agency quoted Wahid as saying Thursday in his stronghold of East Java.
"In such a state, the House of Representatives (DPR) and the MPR will be frozen and a snap general election will be held later."
The guarantee must state that the MPR will not require him to deliver an accountability speech for his 20 months in office, and be on his table by July 30, he said.
If his accountability report is rejected by the MPR it would be tantamount to impeachment.
Most of the MPR's 695 members, ordered to be on stand-by for a snap session, gathered at the parliament complex early in the evening.
Wahid, elected in October 1999, claims under the constitution he cannot be forced to account for his rule until his term of office ends in 2004.
On Thursday he also ruled delegating full power to his vice president, Megawati Sukarnoputri, who stands first in line to succeed him.
Megawati's party, the largest in parliament, on Friday morning said they would all vote for Wahid to be impeached whenever the session was held.
"We will impeach him directly," Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) official Zulvan Lindan told AFP -- JAKARTA (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
