Gus Dur says he tried to notify Wiranto
JAKARTA (JP): President Abdurrahman Wahid insisted on Thursday that he tried to inform Gen. Wiranto of the decision to suspend him from his Cabinet post, but the former military chief was asleep.
Speaking in a meeting with senior members of the Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI) at the State Palace, Abdurrahman said he telephoned Wiranto late on Sunday night after reversing his earlier announced decision to allow him to retain his duties as coordinating minister for political affairs and security.
He said a member of the general's staff said Wiranto had gone to bed.
Abdurrahman did not say if he personally placed the call, or if he thought it unusual for a minister's staff member to reject a call from the president.
According to the President, he planned to contact the general again but forgot.
He said he only remembered shortly before leaving to install Minister of Home Affairs Lt. Gen. (ret) Surjadi Soedirdja as Wiranto's temporary replacement on Monday morning.
"There were so many visitors ... Then I had to attend to business as usual and before I realized it, the time had come for me to go to the ceremony for the temporary appointment of Surjadi."
Abdurrahman's decision to suspend Wiranto shocked many because on Sunday morning he announced that he would keep Wiranto in his ministerial post, pending a formal investigation into his alleged responsibility for the violence in East Timor last year.
"There was no intention to belittle or to regard Wiranto as unimportant," he told the meeting, which was also attended by members of the Confederation of ASEAN Journalists (CAJ).
Abdurrahman said that he and Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri would be among the first of Wiranto's friends to congratulate the general if he was eventually cleared of the allegations against him.
"I've personally told Pak Wiranto that if the court finds him innocent, then he must hold a slametan (thanksgiving ceremony), and I want to be invited with Mbak Mega," the President remarked. (prb)