Terry Frie, Malang – Indonesia's leading Muslim group and fanatic supporters of embattled President Abdurrahman Wahid threatened to call millions on to the streets of the capital to defend him.
Chief of the 40-million strong Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Hasyim Muzadi, also warned that the political brawling over the president's fate could trigger more bloodshed and prompt the military to seize power, ending a brief attempt at democracy.
"In one day, NU can take one or two million people to Jakarta to defend the president. That also has its dangers," Muzadi told Reuters late on Thursday in the town of Malang, in the East Java heartland of Nahdlatul Ulama and Wahid's own support.
The NU is the largest Muslim organisation in the world's largest Muslim country. Wahid led the body, founded by his grandfather, until he became president in October 1999, and it remains one of his most ardent defenders.
NU sources say an estimated 60,000 members have already made their way to Jakarta, including hundreds of members of "suicide squads" who have sworn to die for Wahid and believe they are protected by magic charms and spells.
"These are not empty words," said Affandi Alwi, a member of one suicide squad, which calls itself the Movement Brave Enough to Die Defending Gus Dur. Gus Dur is Wahid's nickname.
NU executive Fachru Razid said on Friday that Wahid supporters would hold a major protest in Jakarta on March 20, the day of an expected anti-Wahid rally in the capital.
"Because the protests against Gus Dur will reach their peak on March 20, our action will also reach its peak on March 20 in Jakarta. Only God knows what will happen on that day," he said.
Wahid, a 60-year-old, half blind and ailing Muslim cleric, is under mounting pressure to quit or be impeached over his bumbling leadership and failure to deal with myriad crises dragging down the world's fourth most populous country.
About 1,500 supporters rallied at parliament on Friday, shouting "Hang Amien Rais!" a reference to the speaker of the top legislative assembly, who helped engineer Wahid's surprise rise to power in 1999 but now publicly rages against him.
Rais is former leader of the second largest Muslim organisation, Muhammadiyah, which has traditionally been at loggerheads with the NU.
"Day by day, this conflict is enlarged ... and if social conflict comes, the military will govern again and all the democratic movement in Indonesia will come to a stop," Muzadi said after a crisis meeting with Muslim leaders from across East Java. "There are a lot of dangerous things behind these games."
But Wahid has gained some ground in his battle with Rais. This week, Rais was forced to concede that his attempts to speed up procedures to impeach Wahid would be unconstitutional. Also two ministers he ordered to quit Wahid's cabinet or be expelled from his party chose to stay with the president.
And on Thursday, Wahid sacked his forestry minister, who is a member of the loose coalition trying to push Wahid from power.
Wahid officials said that when he does respond to a parliament censure over two financial scandals – which has to be by May – he will plead his innocence.
If he was pushed from office, his replacement – almost certainly Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri – would inherit a poisoned chalice of uncontrollable civil unrest that would lead to an army takeover, Muzadi warned.
If Wahid and his enemies could not end the power struggle, a fresh national election should be called, he added. But that offers no obvious solution.
At the last general election in mid-1999, the most successful party – Megawati's – won barely a third of the votes, creating a splintered parliament and forcing Wahid into unlikely alliances to win the presidency a few months later. Indications are the next election, whenever it is held, will be just as inconclusive.
The risk of widespread bloodshed, which has spooked financial markets, is real. NU supporters have clashed with anti-Wahid protesters in Jakarta and destroyed buildings belonging to the former ruling Golkar party, headed by another key figure in the anti-Wahid movement.
On Thursday, thousands of NU protesters torched a Golkar building and a car in the town of Banyuwangi, near Malang. It was the latest in their attacks on the Golkar party.
The NU sources say the organisation is likely to go ahead with its mass callout next Tuesday, putting well over a million people on the streets of the Indonesian capital, already jittery after weeks of pro and anti-Wahid protests.
The simmering instability and the constant threat it could explode into violence has mauled financial markets, driving the rupiah and stocks to two-year lows earlier this week.