Jakarta – Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid said he would ask three ministers suspected of involvement in corruption to resign or face trial, reports said Sunday. "As soon as I get the information from Marzuki [Darusman], the attorney general, I will summon them [and ask them]: 'Will you resign or not? I have the evidence,'" Wahid was quoted by the Media Indonesia newspaper as saying.
The president said the three, whom he did not name, should quit if they did not wish to be brought to trial. "It's easy to find an excuse [for resigning]," he said.
Wahid had earlier said three ministers were being investigated over their alleged involvement in corruption.
On November 26 Wahid announced the resignation of Minister for People's Welfare Hamzah Haz amid allegations he was involved in a 13 billion rupiah (1.8 million dollars) corruption scandal.
But the president denied the move was related to the accusations of corruption against Haz, saying he had resigned to devote himself to being the chairman of his United Development Party.
Haz, who held the investment portfolio under former president B.J. Habibie, has been accused of receiving the money from Habibie to fund his party's campaign in June elections.
Wahid has also said Law and Legislation Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra was not among the three, despite newspaper allegations his Crescent Star Party had received campaign funding of 1.5 billion rupiah (214,285 dollars) from Habibie.
Under election rules individuals can only donate up to 15 million rupiah to a party campaign. Furthermore, there have been suspicions the money might have come from the state coffers.
Haz has denied the charges, saying they were intended to undermine his party, which came in fourth in the elections but holds the third largest number of seats in the 500-seat parliament.
Wahid has said he will suspend ministers under investigation over corruption and sack them if they were found guilty.
Clean government has been a key reformist demand by Indonesians sickened by three decades of corrupt and nepotistic rule under former president Suharto. Suharto was forced to resign in May 1998 amid widespread riots and a crippling economic crisis.