INDONESIA: PRESIDENT ABDURRAHMAN WAHID FLYS TO EAST JAVA TO TRY AND CALM HIS FANATICAL SUPPORTERS / NEW JUSTICE MINISTER BAHARUDIN LOPA SWORN IN

Record ID: 443001

  • Title: INDONESIA: PRESIDENT ABDURRAHMAN WAHID FLYS TO EAST JAVA TO TRY AND CALM HIS FANATICAL SUPPORTERS / NEW JUSTICE MINISTER BAHARUDIN LOPA SWORN IN
  • Date: 9th February 2001
  • Summary: PASURUAN, EAST JAVA (FEBRUARY 9, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WS: EXTERIOR OF MOSQUE 0.06 2. VARIOUS OF SECURITY OUTSIDE MOSQUE (3 SHOTS) 0.23 3. SV:/INDONESIAN PRESIDENT ABDURRAHMAN WAHID ARRIVING AT MOSQUE / PEOPLE LOOKING ON (2 SHOTS) 0.43 4. VARIOUS OF WAHID DURING FRIDAY PRAYERS (2 SHOTS) 1.00 5. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Bahasa Indonesia) INDONESIAN PRESIDENT ABDURRAHMAN WAHID SAYING: "Let them be, let us be the one upholding the laws, we'll see, that in the next election Golkar will lose" 1.15 6. MV: WORSHIPPERS LISTENING 1.20 7. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Bahasa Indonesia) WAHID SAYING: "I am now preparing the best answer, which is my right, the answer that kills." 1.34 8. WIDE OF WAHID ADDRESSING WORSHIPPER 1.40 JAKARTA, INDONESIA (FEBRUARY 9, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 9. PAN: SWEARING IN CEREMONY 1.49 10. SCU: NEW JUSTICE MINISTER BAHARUDIN LOPA 1.56 11. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Bahasa Indonesia) WAHID SAYING: "Justice Minister Baharuddin Lopa is solely responsible to me, not any other institutions or individuals." 2.06 12. SV: CAMERA CREWS 2.11 13. VARIOUS OF LOPA DURING OATH (2 SHOTS) 2.26 14. MV: MILITARY OFFICIALS WATCHING 2.32 15. VARIOUS OF GUESTS CONGRATULATING LOPA (3 SHOTS) 2.45 16. SCU: EX-JUSTICE MINISTER YUSRIL IZHA MAHENDRA HUGGING LOPA 2.53 17. SV: MORE OF LOPA SHAKING HANDS WITH GUESTS 2.58 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 24th February 2001 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PASURUAN, EAST JAVA AND JAKARTA, INDONESIA
  • Country: Indonesia
  • Reuters ID: LVAAZ9X0HCH79SCPAIFXRE8LQOZ0
  • Story Text: Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid flew into his
    political heartland of East Java to try to calm fanatical
    supporters who said they plan to continue their increasingly
    violent protests.

    In his address to Muslim worshipers, Wahid launched a
    fiery attack on his critics, threatening unspecified action
    against parliamentarians who led efforts to censure him last
    week.


    Shortly after arriving in the provincial capital Surabaya
    on Friday (February 9) Wahid headed straight for
    Pasuruan -- a stronghold of a huge Islamic organisation
    founded by his grandfather.

    "Let them be, let us be the one upholding the laws, we'll
    see, that in the next election (former ruling party) Golkar
    will lose," Wahid said.

    Wahid's supporters have been incensed by last week's
    parliamentary censure of the frail president over two
    financial scandals and efforts by his political foes to
    instigate early impeachment hearings against him.

    A week of angry rallies in the densely-populated province
    have focused largely on the former ruling Golkar party which
    joined the majority in parliament in censuring Wahid last week
    and which has been critical of his erratic 15-month rule.

    Thousands of Wahid supporters have rioted in various other
    towns across East Java in the past week, torching and trashing
    Golkar party offices.

    Golkar was the parliamentary vehicle of former President
    Suharto, whose long despotic rule collapsed amid social and
    economic mayhem in 1998.

    "I am now preparing the best answer, as is my right, the
    answer that kills," Wahid said without elaborating.

    The island of Java is home to about half of the 200
    million Indonesian population and holds the key to power in
    the country now limping unsteadily into democracy after
    decades of despots.

    The violence in East Java has served as a warning of the
    bloodshed awaiting Indonesia if efforts to oust Wahid, a
    Muslim cleric succeed. Some protesters have been wounded, but
    there have been no reports of deaths.

    Most analysts expect Wahid to survive for now because of
    fears of violence if he loses office, the lack of a credible
    alternative and the complexity of the impeachment proceedings.

    Wahid has been attacked for failing to be firm enough in
    telling the protesters to calm down.

    Earlier this week the president said he could understand
    why his supporters were so angry over the parliamentary
    censure.

    Wahid's supporters are angered by attempts to bring
    forward a special session of the People's Consultative
    Assembly (MPR), the top legislative body, to try to impeach
    Wahid following his censure by parliament.

    A majority of parties in parliament have since blocked
    those efforts, preferring to follow the constitution which
    drags the possible impeachment process out over several
    months.

    One constitutional analyst estimated that even if
    everything fell into place, the earliest a special session of
    the MPR could be set up would be August.

    Wahid has three months to reply to the censure over the
    scandals -- one involving the theft of $4.1 million from the
    state commodities regulator Bulog, the other his acceptance of
    $2 million aid donation from the Sultan of Brunei.


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