FYI ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- To: undisclosed-recipients:; From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date sent: Fri, 11 Aug 2000 08:31:27 EDT Send reply to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [reformasitotal] AFR: Make no mistake, I'm still in charge, proclaims Wahid [ Double-click this line for list subscription options ] Australian Financial Review Saturday, August 12, 2000 Make no mistake, I'm still in charge, proclaims Wahid By Tim Dodd, Jakarta Indonesia's politically agile President Abdurrahman Wahid has reversed course again. After agreeing under pressure on Wednesday to cede a significant role to his Vice-President, Mrs Megawati Soekarnoputri, he asserted on Friday that his power and authority were undiminished. "A lot of people have misunderstood. What has been ceded to the Vice-President is not authority but tasks," he told journalists in Jakarta. "The President's authority is not decreased." Mr Wahid's statement came just 40 hours after he had agreed - under threat of being dismissed by Indonesia's supreme parliament, the People's Consultative Assembly - to hand over the day-to-day running of the Government to Mrs Megawati. The President also revealed that he had not told the assembly the full story when he announced Mrs Megawati's new role on Wednesday night. He said he still planned to appoint a single co-ordinating minister for the Cabinet who, in practice, is likely to be a rival to Mrs Megawati. Sources said Mr Wahid wanted to appoint a close aide, Mr Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a former general who is the Mines and Energy Minister, to the job. "I didn't mention this to the assembly because it was better to keep it confidential," he said. "It was not necessary to announce it. People will know when it becomes a fact." President Wahid also said that all parties in the assembly agreed with him that it was not necessary to pass a decree to formalise the role assigned to Mrs Megawati. He planned to make it official with a presidential decree. The President conceded that the assembly's actions during the week were a warning to him. Now, Mr Wahid faces another possible showdown with the parliament over allegations that he acted improperly in the so-called Bulogate affair, in which his masseur allegedly embezzled $7 million, and in the Bruneigate case, in which the President has admitted receiving $3.5 million from the Sultan of Brunei, supposedly to assist the province of Aceh. A key factor in Mr Wahid's apparent concession to Mrs Megawati on Wednesday was a revolt by younger politicians across a wide spectrum of political parties who, after a meeting on Monday, said they would put a motion to the assembly to make the President a figurehead and Mrs Megawati head of the Government. If the President refused to budge, this group of "young turks" threatened to dismiss him using the assembly's powers to replace an incapacitated president. Mr Andi Mallarangeng, a political observer, said on Friday that he believed that the message this group sent to the palace had been critical in forcing the President's concession on Wednesday. --------------------------------------------------------------------<e|- Never lose a file again. Protect yourself from accidental deletes, overwrites, and viruses with @Backup. Try @Backup it's easy, it's safe, and it's FREE! Click here to receive 300 MyPoints just for trying @Backup. http://click.egroups.com/1/6349/8/_/774/_/965999882/ --------------------------------------------------------------------|e>- SAPU BERSIH DWIFUNGSI TNI/POLRI, KKN & ORBAISME! ADILI PENANGGUNGJAWAB PELANGGARAN HAM DI ACEH, LAMPUNG, JAKARTA, AMBON, KUPANG, TIMTIM, IRIAN JAYA! Jusfiq Hadjar gelar Sutan Maradjo Lelo ===================================== * Ijtihad untuk mencerdaskan ajaran Islam yang sekarang ini penuh ketololan, kedunguan, kegoblokan dan kebodohan * Ijtihad untuk memanusiawikan ajaran Islam yang sekarang ini biadab, keji dan nista
