Greg Earl, Jakarta – President Habibie appears to have fended off attempts to quickly replace him with a deal yesterday to delay any meeting of the country's presidential election college until at least the end of this year.
The breakthrough for the new president came as the dominant political group of the Soeharto era Golongan Karya (Golkar) split ushering in a period of extreme political volatility with up to a dozen new parties already mooted this week.
The House of Representatives Speaker, Mr Harmoko, yesterday announced, after a meeting with Dr Habibie, that a consensus had been reached not to hold a meeting of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) until a package of new election laws had been drafted in preparation for a new election.
Radical reformers and Habibie opponents had been manoeuvring for a fast special MPR session, which could have replaced Dr Habibie and would have diverted attention from restoring the health of the country's economy.
The Harmoko approach was endorsed by a member of the opposition ginger group that won Dr Habibie's support for widespread political reforms at the weekend and is now working towards a series of reform laws.
A prominent lawyer, Dr Buyung Adnan Nasution, said he favoured delaying a special MPR until reforms were pushed through under the Habibie Government rather than risking an unpredictable new president emerging from the MPR.
A leading opposition figure, Amien Rais, agreed saying the existing members of the MPR body were appointed under the Soeharto regime and had no credibility to choose new national leaders.
But the result is that Dr Habibie has a clear timeframe now to put his stamp on the country and possibly win public credit for overseeing a reform program that has already surprised many observers.
Mr Harmoko said the special session would be held by the beginning of next year but some time after that would still be needed for the general election, which conflicts with the demands by anti-Habibie figures for a special session within two weeks and a general election before the end of this year.
The delay has made it harder for the dominant Golkar Party to retain a major role in Indonesian politics with a key faction this week splitting away to form a new party.
Some political analysts had thought the remnants of the Soeharto establishment might coalesce around the well-organised Golkar to form a conservative party which could still play a dominant role in the country's politics. But in a development which underlined the fragmentation now under way a former Soeharto women's affairs minister, Mien Sugandhi, announced she was leading a breakaway faction after the Golkar business wing was reported to be considering establishing itself as an independent party.
The developments occurred as International Monetary Fund officials consulted a wide range of opposition groups yesterday and top Asia official Hubert Neiss said he believed the new government had already embarked on positive reforms.
Meanwhile, the central bank, Bank Indonesia, was last night set to announce it was taking management control of Indonesia's largest private bank Bank Central Indonesia in a dramatic escalation of the collapse of the banking system.