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Indonesia: Assembly Approves Start of Impeachment Hearing
Indonesia: Assembly Approves Start of Impeachment Hearing
The People's Consultative Assembly on Saturday approved the immediate start of formal impeachment proceedings against President Abdurrahman Wahid, just 21 months after it picked him as Indonesia's first democratic head of state in four decades.
The move, approved by an overwhelming majority of legislators, came just hours after Wahid said he would boycott the hearing, which he described as unconstitutional and treasonous.
Lawmakers said that Wahid could be dumped within days and replaced by Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of Indonesia's founding leader, Sukarno.
At the heavily guarded parliament building, the 700-member assembly voted 592-5 to move against Wahid. The rest either abstained or refused to attend in protest. Members of Wahid's minority National Awakening Party stayed away.
A 38-member bloc representing the military and police voted against Wahid.
Lawmakers sang Indonesia's national anthem after the result was announced in a televised broadcast.
The vote was taken after seven out of the assembly's nine factions proclaimed that Wahid should be made accountable for his alleged shortcomings.
The assembly has demanded that Wahid appear before it on Monday to defend his administration's record and address allegations of corruption and incompetence.
Wahid, however, said on Saturday that he would not deliver a required accountability speech.
Instead, he pleaded with his political foes to strike a deal that he said would save Indonesia's nascent democracy and prevent a new wave of civil unrest.
"I will not attend this illegal meeting," Wahid said at a news conference at the state palace. "This is act of treason."
Wahid refrained from restating earlier threats to declare a state of emergency and close down the assembly -- a move opposed by the military.
"But I have many options," he said. "I won't tell what I will do. But I will do something" by July 31.
Wahid predicted there would be a violent reaction to any move to impeach him, saying he enjoyed wide support among the people.
"Don't blame me if the crowd takes care of everything by themselves," he said, adding that he would urge his supporters to refrain from resorting to violence.
Wahid said there were no grounds for holding him responsible for the country's economic woes or for continuing separatist, ethnic and religious bloodshed.
"Those were mistakes from the past" that could not be rapidly resolved, he said. As far as the economy was concerned, Wahid said that "business confidence was returning."
Indonesia's economy shrank by 14 percent in 1998, at the height of the Asian financial crisis. It recorded no growth the following year. Since Wahid came to power the economy expanded by 5 percent in 2000 and is set to repeat that performance this year.
Wahid, 61, was elected by the assembly in October 1999 as Indonesia's first democratically chosen head of state since 1955.
Initially, the nearly blind Muslim scholar enjoyed wide support amid hopes that he would deliver economic and democratic reforms. However, relations quickly soured with lawmakers, who accused him of erratic policies and claimed that he was too frail after a series of strokes.
His administration also failed to quell communal and separatist conflicts that have killed thousands across the sprawling archipelago. Corruption continued to flourish and attempts to prosecute those guilty of graft mostly came to nothing.
Moves to impeach Wahid were launched last year after he was accused of involvement in two multimillion-dollar graft scandals. He denied any wrongdoing and was cleared by police and prosecutors.
Legislators, however, pressed ahead with their campaign against him and censured the president three times at separate hearings this year as a prelude to formal impeachment proceedings.
Wahid also antagonized the military by sidelining several hardline generals and calling for sweeping reforms within its ranks.
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