Gus Dur camp turns up the heat on Megawati

Gus Dur camp turns up the heat on Megawati

JAKARTA (JP): President Abdurrahman Wahid's camp turned up the
heat on Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri on Wednesday,
saying that she should immediately resign if she wanted to have a
clean fight against the embattled President.

A top executive of Abdurrahman's National Awakening Party
(PKB) suggested that it would be more elegant if Megawati
formally positioned herself as an "outsider" in the run-up to a
possible impeachment hearing against the President.

"If Mbak Mega wants to challenge the President she should quit
the vice presidency first," PKB secretary-general Muhaimin
Iskandar told reporters.

Muhaimin added that Megawati, who has been increasingly
critical of the President over the past few days, should also be
held responsible for the country's political crisis.

"Mbak Mega is still an insider, so as long as she is still the
Vice President, she should not be complaining about the
performance of the government," said Muhaimin, who is deputy
speaker of the House of Representatives (DPR).

Last week it was Megawati's sister, Rachmawati Soekarnoputri,
who suggested that the Vice President quit in the same way her
predecessor Mohammad Hatta did in 1956 when he felt he could not
cooperate with the first president, Sukarno, Megawati's father.

Defense Minister Mahfud M.D. admitted on Tuesday that
Abdurrahman and Megawati were no longer united.

Tension between the two leaders had centered on the
President's reluctance to acquiesce real executive power to
Megawati, which her Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle and
Abdurrahman's other main rivals demanded, in order to avoid the
impeachment process of the President by the People's Consultative
Assembly (MPR).

"If he's willing, he could hand over duties and authority. But
it should be agreed upon by others," House of Representatives
Speaker Akbar Tandjung said after addressing a discussion at the
National Resilience Institute (Lemhannas) on Wednesday.

"If he doesn't want to, the DPR will go ahead with calling a
special session (to impeach him) and there are no other
alternatives."

"That's where his fate will be decided."

Akbar, who chairs Golkar Party, also said that a power-sharing
scheme must be legalized by an Assembly decree to ensure its
effective implementation.

"It must be backed by an MPR decree so that the President can
not intervene and to make sure that the transfer of authority can
be carried out effectively," he said.

MPR Chairman Amien Rais said earlier on Wednesday that "it
still remains a question" whether a special session of the
Assembly would be geared toward the removal of the President.

"We should not jump to conclusions that (the special session)
would be a political catastrophe for Gus Dur," Amien told
reporters.

The statement came as Abdurrahman warned earlier in the day
that he would take tough action to defend the Constitution
against violation by lawmakers.

He said attempts to broker a compromise to end a long-running
crisis must not contravene the 1945 Constitution that grants
sweeping powers to the head of state.

"We can make any kind of political concession as long as it
does not go against the Constitution," Abdurrahman said in his
opening speech at Lemhannas.

"As soon as there is a violation of the Constitution we must
be courageous as a nation and take action to prevent the erosion
of the Constitution."

He did not elaborate.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Endriartono Sutarto and United
Development Party chairman Hamzah Haz had confirmed that Gus Dur,
as the President is popularly known, considered declaring a state
of emergency that would enable him to dissolve the House.

Abdurrahman challenged lawmakers to impeach him on Tuesday,
but vowed not to leave the political stage without a fight.

Chief presidential spokesman Wimar Witoelar denied that the
President had said on Tuesday he expected to be impeached.

"He did not say he expects to be impeached... We have checked
the recording... he recognizes the possibility of impeachment, he
didn't say that he would be impeached," Wimar was quoted by
Reuters as saying.

Wimar then called for a halt to attacks on Abdurrahman for the
sake of the country.

"He really has not had a chance to work without being
undermined politically. Why don't we have... a political
moratorium and see if the government can function better without
these constant attacks by the legislature and the media."

Despite the tension between them, the President still had his
regular breakfast meeting on Wednesday at Megawati's official
residence on Jl. Teuku Umar, Central Jakarta.

As usual, details of the meeting were sketchy with Wimar only
saying that the talks had discussed "the general security
situation in the country".

Also present on Wednesday were regular participants Mahfud,
the Indonesian Military chief, National Police chief, the three
Armed Forces Chiefs of Staff, Coordinating Minister for
Political, Social and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
and Intelligence Chief Arie J. Kumaat. (byg/dja)