Jakarta – One hundred and fifty one members of Indonesia's 500- member lower house of parliament have issued a petition calling for the censure of President Abdurrahman Wahid, whom they accuse of constitutional violations. The petition, which urges the house to issue a memorandum censuring Wahid, was handed to house speaker Akbar Tanjung late Wednesday.

Parliament, which will decide on the proposal, can call for impeachment proceedings against Wahid through a special session of the national assembly or upper house (MPR) if the president's performance fails to improve after a second censure memorandum, parliamentarian Alvin Lie said.

"We are of the opinion that the president has violated the constitution, the state guidelines and decrees of the national assembly," Lie, a member of the National Mandate Party, told AFP.

But any action on the proposal would take time, Lie said. The petition would take at least two months to process and a parliamentary plenary session is expected to convene in January to discuss it, he said.

Tanjung, on receiving the petition, declined to comment, saying only that "if the majority of the house supports the proposal, the house's consultative body will process it," the Jakarta Post reported.

Several MPs from some of the largest parties in the parliament, including the Indonesian Democracy Party (PDIP) of Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri and Tanjung's Golkar, were among the signatories, while three factions, including the armed forces, shunned it.

Currency dealers in Jakarta said the peitition had contributed to the Indonesian rupiah dropping below the 9,500 mark to the dollar on Thursday, after remaining at the 9,400 mark for several days.

Lie said the 151 signatories claimed Wahid had violated the constitution by allowing separatists in the province of Irian Jaya to fly secessionist flags.

Wahid had also run against a national assembly decree on the independence of the central bank by forcing its governor, Syahril Sabirin, to resign, Lie charged. Sabirin is now detained pending a trial over his alleged involvement in the politically-charged Bank Bali scandal.

Lie also said a delay in the legal process against three tycoons accused of misusing central bank liquidity funds and stalled attempts to bring former president Suharto to justice were "proof" of the president's failure to uphold the rule of law.

In October judges halted the corruption trial of Suharto after two teams of doctors announced that the former strongman was mentally and physically unfit to stand trial. An appeal court however has already overturned the verdict.

Lie also said that the corrupt practices that were rampant during the Suharto regime were making a comeback under Wahid's leadership. "Corruption is rife under his government," Lie said, citing two financial scandals allegedly involving Wahid, including a 3.9 million dollar fund embezzlement scam allegedly pulled off by the president's masseur.

Parliamentarians also want to quiz Wahid over the fate of the two-million-dollar donation from the Sultan of Brunei, which the president claimed was a personal gift. Allegations that he was implicated in the two scandals have been seized on by his critics to step up calls for resignation.

Wahid, the country's first democratically-elected president, has served only a little over a year of his five-year-term, scheduled to end in 2004. His defiance has set the stage for another clash with the newly-empowered parliament, which had been a rubber stamp body under Suharto's rule.

Under Indonesia's constitution an impeachment process must first be initiated by the 500-seat lower house, before being enacted by the 700-seat National Assembly.