Jakarta – Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid was publicly snubbed by his deputy on Saturday, adding to growing signs of a politically explosive rift at the top of the troubled administration.
Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who sources say is trying to distance herself from Wahid as he faces pressure to resign over a corruption scandal, was conspicuously absent from the inauguration of a new forestry minister at the presidential palace. Megawati, who will replace Wahid if he is forced to step down, normally swears in new ministers. No reason was given for her absence from the ceremony to induct Marzuki Usman into the cabinet. Sources said she was in Jakarta.
Earlier this week, a senior aide to Megawati told AFP that she was growing increasingly frustrated with Wahid's leadership and was now ready to take his place.
The fresh signs of a rift emerged as an influential senior politician urged Wahid to surrender executive power. House Speaker Akbar Tanjung called on the president to make his deputy head of government, while he retained a role as head of state.
Separate roles for Wahid and Megawti could prove a way out of the political chaos gripping Indonesia, Tanjung was quoted as saying by the Media Indonesia newspaper.
Current efforts to oust Wahid, even constitutionally, would risk stoking social conflicts that could claim many lives, Tanjung said. "It is very likely that a social conflict will erupt and harm the nation," Tanjung said.
Wahid has so far resisted calls to step down in favour of Megawati after being censured by parliament on February 1 for alleged involvement in two financial scandals.
Critics have also accused the virtually blind president of incompetent leadership in a country struggling economically and beset by violent separatist and communal conflicts.
The resulting political turmoil has brought chaos to Indonesia's capital and elsewhere on the main island of Java. Thousands of staunch Wahid supporters from his home base in densely-populated East Java have staged mass rallies in Jakarta while others have blockaded a vital port at the eastern tip of Java.
Sources close to Megawati indicated Saturday that she was growing increasingly resentful of Wahid's interference in cabinet decision-making.
The president sacked Usman's predecessor, Nurmahmudi Ismail, on Thursday for allegedly not doing his job. Ismail, has said he was dismissed for refusing a presidential order to replace the ministry's secretary-general Suripto after Wahid had accused the official of plotting to oust him. Ismail's party is part of a coalition of Muslim groups that is seeking to oust Wahid.
Tanjung said that although a presidential decree last year had already given Megawati a large degree of executive responsibility, "Gus Dur must stress that he will only focus on state affairs while the matters of the day-to-day running of the government should be entrusted to Megawati."
A politician close to Megawati has said that despite the decree, Wahid has continued to interfere and often altered decisions taken by the vice president.
Under the new proposal, Tanjung said, "the vice president will completely hold the reins of the government." "This has to be openly and firmly made clear."