Vaudine England, Jakarta – The whistle, whine and thump of nightly explosions has rocked Jakarta for more than a week, and some of those incendiary devices have President Abdurrahman Wahid's name on them.

But blowing up firecrackers bearing pictures of Mr Wahid and Golkar party chairman Akbar Tandjung has led to trouble. Firecracker producer Sukarno, of Purwokerta, Central Java, is being held by police after complaints by Mr Wahid's National Awakening Party.

His house was searched and hundreds of firecrackers found, some of them with Mr Tandjung's face on them, although none with Mr Wahid's face were found. Mr Sukarno admitted he had made a couple of Wahid firecrackers but claimed he was only trying to expand his market by giving the public what it wanted.

"I have no other purpose but to sell special firecrackers," Mr Sukarno told the police. He said the cover of a weekly magazine had inspired him to design the explosive political tributes, according to a report in The Jakarta Post.

Mr Sukarno was not charged with libel or defamation of the head of state but with illegal production of merchandise. The fireworks are intended to let off the steam generated by the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. After the sunset breaking of the fast, celebratory crashing noises compete with loud-speaker sermons from mosques.

Mr Sukarno's sense of enterprise also suggests another reason to let off steam – the public's tiredness with bickering between members of the political elite. The fasting month appears to have put most demonstrations on hold, but the frustrations refuse to go away so easily.