Wiranto declines Habibie's VP offer

JAKARTA (JP): President B.J. Habibie's presidential bid suffered a major blow on Monday when his handpicked running mate, Indonesian Military Commander Gen. Wiranto, in a nationally televised statement, said he would not enter the electoral fray.

However, Wiranto snuck in a provision at the very end of his statement that he could reconsider "if the people really need it".

Accompanied by the military top brass, Wiranto said that due to the political and security situation which tended to move toward instability, he had no choice but to concentrate efforts on insuring the safety of the nation.

Wiranto, who was named one of the Golkar Party's four vice presidential candidates -- besides party chief Akbar Tandjung, Yogyakarta's Sultan Hamengkubuwono X and former Cabinet minister Ginandjar Kartasasmita -- and was the personal choice of Habibie, said he had not been approached about the nomination and had decided not to enter the political contest at this time.

"I have to say that until now I have never been contacted by anyone, including the Golkar Party which, in its meeting, openly mentioned my name," Wiranto said.

"Under the current situation I have chosen not to enter the presidential and vice presidential contest."

In what appeared to be a conditional clause, in his closing sentence Wiranto said: "I will carry out the political position available to me if the people really need it".

A Golkar Party executive meeting last week agreed to allow Habibie the "privilege" of naming his running mate. The party, however, also gave a mandate to Akbar Tandjung to seek an alternative strategy if Habibie's nomination faced strong opposition.

Habibie has said that Wiranto's military and Javanese background were strong traits for his being a vice president.

But Wiranto's rejection now looks ominous for Habibie, who will face a credibility test when the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) votes on whether to accept his accountability report on Tuesday night.

The Assembly will elect a president on Wednesday, with Habibie, Megawati Soekarnoputri and Abdurrahman Wahid the three leading candidates.

Falling short of saying the incumbent's nomination might be lost, Golkar Party deputy chairman Marzuki Darusman politely described the latest development as "substantively diminishing Habibie's prospects".

"Effectively, what Wiranto said was that he declined the vice presidential nomination from Habibie, and this of course clearly indicates the position of the TNI in not supporting Habibie's nomination," Marzuki told The Jakarta Post on Monday evening.

"That is something that we anticipated... In any case it may be the turning point of Habibie's prospects," he said, adding that Wiranto made a "very wise move from the viewpoint of TNI".

Late Monday night Golkar members were seen hastily exiting Assembly commission deliberations to attend an emergency Golkar meeting.

No formal explanation was given about the closed meeting which began at about 10 p.m. and continued past midnight. It is suspected that they convened to discuss the latest political development.

Split

A combination of Wiranto's refusal to run and a rejection of the accountability speech on Tuesday night could seal Habibie's fate.

Unless there is a last minute political compromise, Assembly members are expected to vote of the accountability speech on Tuesday evening. The result of the vote will be ratified in an Assembly decree.

By all accounts there remained a fine balance on Monday night between those who would support and reject the accountability speech.

Four factions -- the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, the National Awakening Party (PKB), the Indonesian Nationhood and the Love the Nation Democratic Party -- have rejected the accountability speech with only one, the United Ummat Sovereignty faction, accepting it.

The remaining six have raised concerns about it but have not stated whether they will reject or accept it.

On the surface, top Golkar Party officials like Fahmi Idris remained confident that the party candidate would be able to pass this initial test.

"We are optimistic that more factions will throw their weight behind it," he said.

"I am sure in the Golkar faction all members will be loyal to the party and cast their votes in the secret ballot in favor of the accountability speech," he said in an attempt to defuse talk that splits were occurring in the 182-member faction.

However a reliable source in the Golkar faction conceded that the faction was indeed split, with estimates of up to 80 members expected to reject the accountability speech.

"It's surprising that some 80 faction members are planning to launch an underground movement to oppose the faction's stand. I fear that the number will increase during the ballot," the source told The Jakarta Post in the Assembly compound on Monday afternoon.

Dimyati Hartono, deputy chairman of PDI Perjuangan, claimed that a majority of Assembly members were expected to reject the speech in the ballot as they would not dare betray the intense protests condemning it.

Muhaimin Iskandar, PKB secretary-general, concurred and said that his 57-member faction would reject the accountability report in the ballot at the plenary session.

"We can now calculate the number of those opposing the speech. The four factions with a total of 260 will need only 90 votes from other factions to win the ballot," he said, hoping that more than 100 members of the Golkar, the United Development and the Reform factions would reject it.

He particularly expressed confidence that the 41-member Reform faction would reject the speech as hinted by the National Mandate Party (PAN), which makes up the faction along with the Justice Party.

Zarkasih Nur, deputy chairman of the United Development faction, admitted that while the faction was officially swaying toward accepting the speech, individual members in the 74-seat faction were divided.

"Although the United Development faction will (officially) accept the accountability speech with numerous notes, some of its members are expected to reject it," he said.

Laode Zaini, a Golkar faction Assembly member, confidently boasted that the accountability speech would be accepted as 600 of the 700 Assembly members were Muslims. He did not elaborate. (byg/rms/jsk)