Chris McCall and Reuters in Jakarta – Beleaguered President Abdurrahman Wahid won a much-needed boost yesterday when two cabinet ministers opted to stay in his Government and leave the party of his most ferocious political enemy.

It is the second blow this week for Amien Rais, head of the small National Mandate Party (PAN) and speaker of the top legislature. Mr Rais has mounted an increasingly fierce campaign to oust Mr Wahid who he helped put in office 16 months ago.

A PAN source said that the decision had been taken at a party board meeting on Wednesday. Education Minister Yahya Muhaimin and Manpower Minister Alhilal Hamdi, PAN's last ministers in the coalition Government, were given 12 hours to resign from their cabinet posts. By the time the deadline was reached yesterday morning, neither had done so.

Mr Rais yesterday confirmed that the two men had been fired from the party. Both are party board members and have served in Mr Wahid's unwieldy coalition cabinet since it was appointed in October 1999.

Mr Hamdi thanked PAN for dismissing him, saying he would get on with his work as a minister and it would be a lot easier free from party pressure.

Apart from leading PAN, Mr Rais also serves as the speaker of the supreme People's Consultative Assembly which appoints the president and will hear any impeachment trial if one takes place later this year, as widely expected.

Impeachment proceedings began against Mr Wahid last month. This week Mr Rais was forced to concede the constitution prevented an early assembly session to impeach the President.

"Certainly, it could boost Gus Dur [Mr Wahid's nickname] to have these two ministers in the cabinet because their rebellion against their party's wishes indicates that their leader's political legitimacy is also eroding," political analyst Arbi Sanit said. But he said it is was too early to say whether Mr Wahid had gained the upper hand in the country's political battle.

Despite overwhelming opposition from legislators, Mr Wahid has declared there is no way he is going to resign. It has left his ministers in a quandary.

In May 1998, former president Suharto was reluctantly forced to resign after 32 years in power when his ministers started abandoning the sinking ship.

Many in Indonesia see a parallel with Mr Wahid's position now. Many of his ministers are drawn from parties that voted for impeachment on February 1, when Mr Wahid was issued with a "memorandum" of censure concerning his alleged role in two corruption scandals.

Their party colleagues believe a wave of resignations might pressure the virtually blind Muslim cleric into changing his mind and bowing out gracefully. But some ministers are remaining doggedly loyal to the embattled President, in defiance of their own parties.