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Wahid Still Prepared to Declare Emergency in Indonesia
Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid said Wednesday he was keeping alive the option of calling in the military and declaring a state of emergency in his country.
Speaking from Sydney at the end of a fleeting visit to Australia, the first by an Indonesian president since 1975, Wahid said the risks of bringing in the military were not as great as the rest of the world believed.
If the Indonesian parliament demanded he give an accountability speech on August 1, he said he would refuse to appear.
"It is easy, I just declare an emergency," Wahid told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio.
"They (the outsiders) see danger in the military participation but for me, no," he said.
The use of the military would not take Indonesia to the edge of disaster, Wahid said.
"No, don't believe that," he said. "That is the concoction of those who try to enforce things on us. They make us afraid of the military."
"In fact, the military is also now in chaos, like the politicians," he said.
Wahid was also confident the military would obey if he declared a state of emergency.
"Oh yes, because those people already declared they will do anything the supreme commander will order," he said.
However, he said the decision was not his alone.
"It will be shared by 11 people (including) the president, vice president, the head of the armed forces, the minister for the interior and for defense, both coordinating ministers and then the chief of the police, so it is a collective decision," he said.
Wahid also rejected claims he had brought his current political crisis on himself by alienating many of his original supporters.
"Well, I hold to the constitution as much as possible, because of this those who violate the law and the constitution shall remember that I am there not because of them but because of the constitution," he said.
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