Ian Timberlake – A telephone rings somewhere inside Eggi Sudjana's denim jacket. He pulls out two tiny cell phones and talks briefly into one, but the 41-year-old corporate lawyer seems to be half asleep.

That might be because the night before, he'd met again with members of the resurgent student movement that has been shouting for the resignation of President Abdurrahman Wahid, who is threatened with impeachment over corruption allegations and is facing the most severe crisis of his 16 months in office.

As much as the battle to oust Wahid is centered on Indonesia's Parliament, it is also taking place on the streets where students, sometimes in the thousands, issue demands almost daily that Wahid has to go.

But there are strong suspicions being voiced that the student movement is manipulated and perhaps even funded by Wahid's foes, some of whom are seen as part of the New Order – the regime of former dictator Suharto, who was toppled in May 1998 after massive student protests.

Todung Mulya Lubis, a prominent lawyer, bluntly declares: "There are New Order forces manipulating the student movement. I think a lot of people in Parliament suddenly converted themselves to reform, when in the past they were part of the New Order ... I think it's disgusting, actually." Anti-reform forces are widely believed to turn to Sudjana and other behind-the-scenes figures like him when they want to make a point on the streets.

Sudjana is known as a "mobilizer" of protesters, and he admits to advising several of the hard-line Islamic militias that have intermittently destabilized Indonesia during Wahid's term in office.

Sudjana chuckles at the suggestion that he is one of the people behind the current protests: "If I am the one organizing, I have to be near them. I must be out there. I'm not. I just got back from Japan. I'm a busy man."

The current demonstrations peaked in late January and early February, when several thousand students blocked a highway outside Parliament as the House of Representatives discussed a committee report that implicated Wahid in two financial scandals.

Offering little concrete evidence, the House report claimed Wahid was involved in the illegal transfer of $4 million from the state food agency, Bulog. It also accused him of failing to officially declare a $2 million donation from the sultan of Brunei.

The House voted to censure Wahid, a nearly blind, moderate Muslim cleric. He has four months to respond before Parliament can begin impeachment proceedings.

Andre Rosiade, 22, a Trisakti University accounting student and anti-Wahid activist, said, "We see the indications that Wahid is implicated in KKN, so we ask him to resign." KKN are the Indonesian initials for corruption, collusion and nepotism, which was a standard rallying cry for demonstrators opposed to the Suharto regime – and emblematic of a culture Wahid vowed to eradicate.

Rosiade, president of the Trisakti University Student Executive Body (BEM), spoke after several hundred young people rallied at the University of Indonesia several days ago.

Leaders of the University of Indonesia student movement are also officials of BEM, which exists at a number of campuses and which critics allege is closely linked to the Association of Islamic Students (HMI), a group associated with anti-reform elements.

Hendardi, a Jakarta human rights lawyer who has represented East Timorese resistance leader Xanana Gusmao, said that HMI's alumni include Akbar Tandjung, leader of the Golkar Party, Suharto's longtime political vehicle. Golkar is now the second-largest party in Parliament and is fiercely critical of Wahid.

Hendardi concludes: "This isn't like the student movement of 1998. It's engineered." He says he suspects some of the protesters are paid, and he accuses HMI of directing them on behalf of Wahid's parliamentary opponents, who have various political agendas but are united in wanting him removed.

Hendardi said the protests "aim to give a certain type of support to the House to make it look like the people want Wahid toppled." Sudjana, a HMI alumnus himself, admits he has advised the students that Wahid needs to be removed but he denies their movement is organized.

"It's the logical consequence of the feelings of students who were hurt because Wahid betrayed the reformation," said the self-described "consultant" to the Front Hizbullah, Islamic Defenders Front and Laskar Jihad, violent extremist groups who have wrought havoc in Javanese cities and the far-off Malukus archipelago.

Other students disagree with BEM's focus on Wahid. "Maybe they are not supported by Golkar but they are playing on the stage built by Golkar," said Rheinhard, 24, a ponytailed political science student and an activist since 1998. He wants Golkar disbanded and the remnants of the Suharto regime neutralized.

Golkar are not the only ones who want Wahid out but the party has become the focus of anger for the president's supporters, thousands of whom rallied last week before trashing Golkar offices in East Java province.

"There is a convergence of interests to get rid of Wahid," said a Western diplomat who cited these reasons:

• Golkar wants to ensure its personnel don't have to answer for their past corruption.
• Other opposition politicians want power for its own sake.
• The powerful military would be more comfortable working with Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri of the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle. She would be easier for them to control and a more natural ally than the cleric Wahid against potential Islamic influence on the government – something the military staunchly opposes.
• Committed reformers are disappointed that Wahid has failed to deliver many of the reforms he was expected to bring when he became Indonesia's first democratically elected president in decades.

"Even those who supported him are disappointed with the way he managed the country," said Lubis.

He particularly faults Wahid for not appointing a tougher justice minister and attorney general. The administration has had little success in bringing the Suharto family to justice on corruption charges or in pressing for accountability for the military's crimes in East Timor.

Lubis agreed that the old regime and its sympathizers, with their money and resources, would be a major obstacle for any attorney general. But Wahid could have done more to confront them.

"As president, he can do a lot," Lubis said. "But I think he did not use that opportunity to strengthen the legal team in his cabinet." Now it may be too late.

Wahid is unlikely to fall in the next few weeks, but his future beyond that is in doubt. "I think he will have to go at some point," the diplomat said.