Jakarta – Students protested in at least two Indonesian cities including the capital on Friday demanding that President Abdurrahman Wahid resign and answer charges that he was involved in two financial scandals.
Some 500 students rallied outside the parliament building in Padang, the capital of West Sumatra province, waving posters denouncing the country's first democratically-elected leader.
"There's no more reason to retain [Wahid]," said Muhammad Rizki, chairman of the Andalas University students union, an AFP reporter there said.
In Jakarta, 100 leaders of students unions from at least seven state universities in Java and Sumatra submitted a petition to parliament calling on the legislature to press on with its investigation into two scandals in which Wahid is allegedly involved. Later in the day some 200 students and workers protested at the parliament building, calling for Wahid's resignation.
In a separate protest outside the presidential palace in Jakarta some 400 Muslims demonstrated to condemn an alleged secret meeting between Wahid and Israeli Trade Minister Reuven Horesh earlier this month. The meeting was reported by the Jakarta press on Friday. "Gus Dur [Wahid's nickname] is a zionist agent," read one poster held up by a protestor.
A parliamentary commission wants to question Wahid over "Bulogate" – the theft of 3.9 million dollars from the state logistics agency, Bulog, reportedly pulled off by Wahid's masseur, Alip Agung Suwondo.
The other scandal, dubbed "Bruneigate" by the press, centers around a two million dollar donation from the Sultan of Brunei that the president claimed was a personal gift to be used for humanitarian assistance in the rebellious Aceh province.
Wahid on Monday walked out of a meeting with the commission, saying it had failed to clarify if the questioning session was a legal or political forum.
The president has criticized the special commission as illegal and refused to be queried over the scandals. He claimed he was not accountable to a lower house body.
Wahid's opponents have staged daily protests at the parliament building in the past week. The president's supporters were also active. On Friday some 20 of them were meeting with parliamentary leaders inside the parliament complex, an AFP reporter there said.
On Wednesday leaders of the 40-million strong Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country's largest Islamic group once led by Wahid, warned parliament speaker Akbar Tanjung of bloodshed if Wahid was toppled.
"We cannot accept the way legislators are crticzing the president and the political conspiracy in the House to topple the government," the Jakarta post quoted one of NU leaders, Akiq Zaman as saying by after meeting Tanjung.
"The nation will be facing chaotic situation and pay a high social cost if the president is forced to step down now while the constitution guarantees his tenure until 2004," he added.
He said that NU leader could no longer be able to hold back Wahid's supporters in East Java, an NU stronghold, from travelling to the capital to couter anti-Wahid protests and the leaders.