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Wahid: Conflicts, Power Struggle Threaten Indonesia's Unity
Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid said here Monday that mounting conflicts and power struggle among elite politicians and forces in Indonesia is really threatening the existence of the unitary state and national integrity.
Addressing the annual session of the country's highest law-making body of the Peoples Consultative Assembly (MPR), the president said that the government faces difficulties due to a wide spread communal conflict.
"The political atmosphere, we feel, is flowing and affecting the intensity of controversy and physical conflicts among certain parts of our society," he said.
In the area of security and politics, Wahid said, his government inherited a situation that is laden with conflict of interest, followed everywhere by various law violations.
He admitted that, "even though the government that was formed from the result of the 1999 general elections already possessed legitimization and reflects the will and desire of the people, its existence cannot automatically cool down the atmosphere of conflict, which deeply rooted in politics, economy and society."
The annual session of the assembly was opened by its Speaker Amien Rais on Monday morning and is expected to be closed on August 18.
All factions in the Assembly will express their respective opinions, questions and criticism of the President's speech until August 9.
But there is no sign, so far, that the president will be impeached due to his alleged failure in dealing with the huge complex problems which have been deteriorating economic and political situation in the country.
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