Jakarta – Indonesia's first democratically-elected president, under flak for failing to lead the nation out of its crippling problems, faces a decisive year ahead as pressure grows for his ouster.

"If we see this past year, the performance [of the government] has been far from the hopes of the society," said Pande Raja Silalahi, a senior economist at the private think tank, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

Silalahi said the political and security fields were marked by instability and threats of disintegration, the judicial field remained stagnant and although economic growth had been recorded, it remained limited.

Secession was tugging at both ends of the archipelago, in Aceh and in Irian Jaya, and Wahid's detractors have blamed it on the government's lack of firm handling of separatism there.

On economic growth, Silalahi said "those involved and who enjoy it are still the same, the upper classes," and in agriculture which involves some 43 percent of the workforce, growth had been negative.

Economic growth from April to December this year was estimated to reach 4.1 percent, compared to 0.3 percent in 1999 and around five percent for 2001.

But the rupiah, which opened the year at 6,935 to the dollar was now trading around 9,335. The Jakarta stock market index also plunged from 636,43 on January 7 to 418,78 on Tuesday.

"The diseases are all still old diseases. There is no firmness in vision, policies or actions, and this is a recipe for disaster," Silalahi said.

Rights lawyer Abdulhakim Garuda Nusantara blamed the lack of firmness on Wahid's penchant for dialogue and compromise. "Whatever criteria we use, we can firmly say that this government had failed to govern as the people had hoped for," political analyst Afan Gaffar from the state Gajah Mada university in Yogyakarta, Central Java, said.

Gaffar, told a private seminar here Tuesday, that the government had failed to deliver its promises of security and prosperity, a stable political system and strong foundations for an economic recovery.

Wahid, he said, must shape up next year if he wanted to stay at the helm of the world's fourth largest nation. He cited a priority on economic recovery, getting rid of his personal attitudes and problems and laying down clear directions for his government.

Azyumardi Azra, chancellor of the state Institute of Islamic Studies, said that Wahid himself had continuously undermined his own legitimacy, authority and credibility as head of state. He said Wahid's controversial statements, actions and policies have widely ruffled feathers, including in his own government, the legislature and the military.

During his 14 months in power, Wahid has had several head-on clashes with the legislature, and in the coming months he must also face the Herculean and turbulent task of devolution of power, and the surrender of resources, to the country's fractious provinces.

A government rubber stamp for decades, the parliament is now basking in its new found power and has been seeking to oust Wahid by initiating motions that would lead to a special session of the general assembly to depose him.

"We cannot just dump all mistakes on Gus Dur [Wahid's nickname], everyone else is just as guilty. The legislature also doesn't know what it is doing ... the Judiciary has also failed to produce any achievement," Silalahi said.

Despite popular pressure, the government has yet to bring former president Suharto to court. Suharto's youngest son has yet to serve a jail sentence for corruption after he disappeared last month. Economist and pro-democracy proponent H.S. Dillon said that when the people elected Wahid, "everybody knew that Gus Dur marches to a different drummer.

"It is also the fault of all of us. We put him there, in a presidency that is not cut out for a handicapped person." Dillon said Wahid's good point was in promoting free speech and freedom of organization.

Muslim intellectual Nurcholis Majid told the Kompas daily that the government had been directionless, "with no leadership," but cautioned that replacing Wahid before his term ends in 2004 would only set a bad precedent and cause more problems.

The silver lining, he said, would be that "people would be forced to work for themselves and not entirely depend on the government" as they had under Suharto.