Thousands demand Gus Dur resign

JAKARTA (JP): No bullets or tear gas were fired when more than 10,000 protesters, mostly students, besieged Merdeka Palace on Monday, intensifying the pressure on President Abdurrahman Wahid to resign.

Rallies against the President also took place in several towns across the country, but the students' call for a national strike did not materialize.

The demonstration, which began peacefully, was marred by violence when a group of students attacked Atma Jaya University campus on their way to the House of Representatives after dusk. A car was set ablaze and at least 10 other cars and six motorcycles were damaged during the violence.

Although there was no official report of injuries, several people, including a Jawa Pos photographer, were beaten according to witnesses.

Chanting anti-Abdurrahman statements around the tightly- guarded palace, the protesters, who started gathering at around 10 a.m., handed out leaflets calling for a national strike and the President's resignation.

Abdurrahman was presiding over a Cabinet meeting when the rally took place.

The rally blocked traffic trying to access the palace, while the city's main thoroughfares were almost brought to a total standstill.

Against the odds, a tiny group of people, including Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) youth wing Ansor activists, held a prayer in support of the President, who chaired the country's largest Muslim organization for 15 years before being elected as president in October 1999.

The deployment of 3,000 police and military troops and the deployment of barbed wire barricades at the palace did little to separate both pro and anti-Abdurrahman supporters and deter them from throwing rocks at each other.

Tense moments passed after members of both camps formed a human barricade to avoid further provocation.

City Military Commander Maj. Gen. Bibit Waluyo, who stood guard at the scene, said that there were several damaging rumors circulating in the masses.

"I am here ... to help police secure this place," Bibit said without specifying the rumors.

Jakarta Police Chief Insp. Gen. Mulyono Sulaiman was also seen at the scene.

Expressing their immense dislike for the President, popularly known as Gus Dur, members of the Student Executive Body (BEM) representing various universities in Java and Sumatra also demanded that the former ruling party Golkar be disbanded.

"Don't you know that Gus Dur is the best student of former president Soeharto?" one BEM protester said.

Three student representatives were finally given an audience with Minister of Justice and Human Rights Baharuddin Lopa; Coordinating Minister for Political, Social and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono; Minister of National Education Yahya Muhaimin; and Minister of Home Affairs and Regional Autonomy Surjadi Soedirdja.

The students were Taufik Riyadi, who chairs BEM at the state University of Indonesia, and his counterparts at the state Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) and private Trisakti University, Sigit Prasetyo and Andre Rosiade respectively.

Andre told The Jakarta Post that during the 30-minute meeting, the student leaders demanded that Gus Dur resign and his Cabinet be dissolved.

"The ministers promised us that they would convey our demands to the President. We demanded that the ministers leave the Cabinet and join us instead," a dejected Andre said.

"They refused without any clear explanation, except that all things should be done constitutionally."

Apart from BEM activists, the protesters included Muhammadiyah United Students Front (Kammu), labor groups Gaspermindo and the Association of Indonesian Muslim Workers (PPMI), and members of the Ka'abah Youth Movement (GPK), all demanding that Gus Dur resign.

The masses traded verbal insults with Gus Dur supporters, who included students from Bung Karno University and the State Islamic Institute (IAIN).

The demonstration kept the President and ministers in the Bina Graha presidential office compound, until they secretly departed after most of the students dispersed.

People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker Amien Rais led a group of legislative leaders from all factions, who joined the rally after a group of students fetched them, except those of the National Awakening Party and Indonesian Military and National Police.

Amien, who spoke from his bus, told the students that the MPR could no longer tolerate Abdurrahman remaining in office and would consider an accelerated process to impeach the President over his failure to uphold the reform agenda.

Joining Amien were Sutjipto, MPR deputy speaker from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle; Fachmi Idris, secretary of the Golkar faction at the Assembly; Syamsul Muarif, chairman of the Golkar faction at the House; Ali Marwan Hanan, chairman of the United Development Party (PPP) faction; Hatta Radjasa, chairman of the reform faction; and Fuad Bawazier, a regional legislature representative.

The clash at Atma Jaya University was reportedly sparked by rumors that a BEM activist from UI was abducted while passing the campus, which is situated near the Semanggi cloverleaf. But an Atma Jaya student, Dony, said a group of protesters provoked the brawl with statements criticizing Atma Jaya's absence from the rally.

Some 500 students were allowed to rest at the House compound, where 50 of them held talks with Amien at around 9 p.m.

With more anti-Abdurrahman rallies almost certain to take place, Ansor Youth secretary-general Abdul Naim Salim said there would be no single force that could prevent the organization's members from streaming into the capital to protect Gus Dur.

"If the situation is unchanged, we cannot guarantee that Ansor members will not flock to Jakarta. But they will only come as individuals," Naim told The Jakarta Post. (ylt/dja/01)