Vaudine England, Jakarta – Thousands of members of Indonesia's largest Muslim group rallied in Jakarta in support of President Abdurrahman Wahid yesterday, while in the President's heartland of East Java security forces guarded offices of the Golkar and United Development parties amid continuing protests.
About 3,000 Muslim student supporters of the embattled leader, whose nickname is Gus Dur, took to the streets to proclaim his innocence in two corruption scandals that may lead to his impeachment. One banner read: "Forcing Gus Dur to resign is preparing coffins." Another: "If Gus Dur is ousted, East Java will be a country of its own."
The emotional support comes from members of the 30-million strong Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), which Mr Wahid chaired for 15 years. NU chief Hasyim Muzadi warned supporters could get out of control. "We will try, and try and try to prevent any clash with other parties. But our power is limited," he reportedly said.
Supporters of Mr Wahid in East Java blame Golkar and the United Development Party (UDP) for supporting Parliament's decision last Thursday to censure the President, a step towards impeachment proceedings.
Calls in Jakarta for the dissolution of Golkar the election-winning machine created to serve the interests of former president Suharto have provoked angry responses from its leaders and threats of legal action. Golkar remains associated with Suharto's authoritarian rule, despite offering apologies for its past behaviour.
The angry mood is another indication that the gloves are off in Indonesia's power struggle. After decades in which foreign analysts portrayed politics here as a mysterious shadow-play akin to the traditional wayang kulit puppetry, the reality now is an open play for power.
While Mr Wahid's parliamentary opponents portray the political battle as a crusade against corruption, Mr Wahid's supporters argue the future of the country's nascent democracy is at stake.
More stridently than ever, Mr Wahid's message is that this is a battle against the lingering evils of the Suharto era and its supporters in Government and business. One pamphlet circulated by his supporters is entitled Awas Orde Baru (Beware the New Order) and names those allegedly behind a Suharto-backed plot to subvert open society and protect the former leader's ill-gotten gains. New Order is the label Suharto gave to his 32-year rule.
Mr Wahid's National Awakening Party is preparing paperwork to try to force the resignation of People's Consultative Assembly chairman Amien Rais, who insists Mr Wahid must quit. The National Awakening Party also says it will sue members of Parliament over a range of alleged procedural violations in the parliamentary censure process.
More roughly, groups of Wahid supporters have attacked news offices if they deemed the coverage of their hero was overly critical.
Mr Wahid heightened tension by regularly warning that up to 85,000 of his supporters were coming to Jakarta to defend him. Hundreds of these were at last Thursday's mass demonstration outside Parliament, saying they had paid their own fares to the capital from homes in Madura, Surabaya and Cirebon.
Thousands of youths in the East Javanese cities of Surabaya, Bondowoso and Situbondo took to the streets as soon as Parliament voted against Mr Wahid. One group in Situbondo felled trees along a main road and paralysed traffic for a day and night, newspapers reported. Other youths rioted and vandalised shops.
A group calling itself the Anti-New Order People and Students' Action Front, based between West and Central Java, vandalised Golkar party offices and burned Golkar's yellow flags at state buildings.
Separately, about 400 people staged a rally in Surabaya. "At first, they wanted to visit the United Development Party's office and the Golkar Party's office, but they changed their minds after seeing security personnel from the East Java police guarding the offices," said