Indonesian President Wahid Disbands Parliament in Hopes to Stop Impeachment Proceedings
STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: There is political turmoil in Indonesia at this hour. This afternoon, embattled President Abdurrahman Wahid declared a state of emergency and disbanded parliament in order to keep lawmakers from going forward with impeachment proceedings against him. Joining us on the telephone now to explain all this, CNN Jakarta bureau chief Maria Ressa. Maria, thanks for joining us.</s>MARIA RESSA, CNN JAKARTA BUREAU CHIEF: Thank you, Stephen. It's 5:00 in the morning here in Jakarta. About four hours ago, Mr. Wahid gave a decree -- in effect, it seems he tried to circumvent the Monday meeting of the People's Consultative Assembly, that's Indonesia's highest lawmaking body. That body began impeachment proceedings against Mr. Wahid on Saturday. These proceedings Mr. Wahid claims are unconstitutional. By attempting to freeze the legislature, Mr. Wahid was trying to stop that process. Legislators say what Mr. Wahid has done by declaring this state of emergency, that's what is unconstitutional. Lawmakers claim they will move ahead with immediate impeachment of Mr. Wahid, and that they expect this to swear in Megawati Sukarnoputri as president on Monday. We are seeing some support for Mr. Wahid start to crumble. Two of his cabinet ministers resigned, chief security minister and his cabinet secretary. Unfortunately, the standoff between the legislative and executive branches has reached a critical point, and now it's left to security forces here to determine which group -- which branch of government and who will be in charge of the country -- Stephen.</s>FRAZIER: Let's back up a little bit, Maria, and explain why lawmakers would like to impeach their president, and point out how democratically he was elected. As people here know, there's a long tradition of military-backed governments there?</s>RESSA: Absolutely. There was 32 years of almost autocratic, one man rule under former President Suharto. Mr. Wahid is the first democratically elected leader of this country in more than four decades. Initially, the accusation against Mr. Wahid were linked to financial scandals. However, he was cleared of any wrongdoing in those things. The police and the attorney general's office said that he did not have -- there wasn't sufficient evidence. But lawmakers continued to go ahead with a move to censure him -- censure is a process here in Indonesia that basically says legislature is unhappy with his action. The problem here really is that Indonesia is a parliamentary form of government, according to the 1945 constitution, with the veneer of the presidential government, that's the legacy of the former President Suharto here. And what we're seeing is different interpretation of the constitution. In some effect, depending on how you look at it, both of those interpretations are correct. Now, though, it's going to be up to the military and the police to tell the Indonesian people who, which branch of government, has the correct interpretation -- Stephen.</s>FRAZIER: Well, Maria, give us a sense of this -- is this just a philosophical battle between two political ideals, or are people on the streets nervous about how all of this is going to play out?</s>RESSA: It's very unclear exactly what the people think right now. Certainly, this battle between Wahid and legislators has been going on for more than a year, but what we're seeing now is a very much a wait-and-see attitude. Over the last few months, it's been wearying for many Indonesians, many of them say that they don't care much what goes on in the top levels of the political situation, what they care about is that they continue to make money. These are the people that we've spoken with on the streets: taxi cab drivers, office workers. Certainly one of the big problems Mr. Wahid had to face was the meltdown of the economy, and there is a lot of dissatisfaction about the way that's been handled, but he's also inherited a lot of sectarian problems: violence, religious violence, separatist violence. None of these problems have been solved, and that's really is the core problem that the legislators have pointed out. How do the Indonesian people feel -- it really remains to be seen. Mr. Wahid claims that if he is pushed out by lawmakers, that it will begin the disintegration, that some provinces of Indonesia would want to secede, lawmakers claim that that's just Mr. Wahid saying that, and that there's no evidence that will happen -- Stephen.</s>FRAZIER: Very, very briefly, Maria, as we let you go here. We've been looking at pictures of the armed forces out on the streets as you and I have been talking here. Are they in fact rolling around on the streets? Why were they called out?</s>RESSA: Since this afternoon, since Sunday afternoon, there's been the largest show of military force here in Indonesia. The military commander says that this is partly in response to the two bomb explosions that happened on Sunday, but also partly to show that the military will make sure that a repeat of the 1988 violence, when then-President Suharto was forced to step down, that that will not happen. However, what's interesting is that it's not quite sure exactly whether the military was out near the palace in support of Mr. Wahid, or to warn Mr. Wahid, and that's exactly what we need to see in the hours ahead -- Stephen.</s>FRAZIER: Sounds like unsettled times for you there. Maria, good luck in the coming hours, and thanks for bringing us up to date on all of that.