Jakarta – More than 8,000 Indonesian police and troops staged a show of unity and defiance near the presidential palace Tuesday, pledging allegiance to the national police chief sacked by President Abdurrahman Wahid last week.
Presiding over the rally, Jakarta police chief Inspector General Sofyan Jacoeb called on the military (TNI) and the police (Polri) to remain united under the sacked police chief, General Suroyo Bimantoro.
"We have to maintain the solidity of the TNI and Polri to anticipate threats and disturbances in the country," Jacoeb told the gathering in the Monas square, a few hundred meters from the presidential palace. The rally was joined by soldiers from the army strategic reserve command, the marines and the air force.
Jacoeb said the roll call was held to assess security after the G-15 summit of developing countries last week and a parliament plenary session last month, as well as a special session of the national assembly scheduled for August 1 at which Wahid could be impeached.
The gathering, also attended by Jakarta military chief Major General Bibit Waluyo, was called as police stood firm in their refusal to accept the firing of Bimantoro.
"General Bimantoro is still the leader of the national police," Jacoeb said after the ceremony. Bimantoro was absent from the parade. "This rally is based on an instruction from General Bimantoro," he added. He said the military "remains supportive of Polri in every way."
The Detikcom online news service quoted Wahid as saying of the parade: "Let them go ahead." In what many described as a desperate bid to cling to power, Wahid on Friday sacked four senior aides, including security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and "de-activated" Bimantoro when he refused to step down.
Bimantoro has insisted that under the prevailing laws he remains the police chief until parliament approves his dismissal.
Yudhoyono had objected to Wahid's plan to impose state of emergency to allow him to disband parliament, which is seeking to impeach him for his alleged involvement in two financial scandals and incompetence. The military has also expressed openly its opposition to the emergency plan.
Wahid blamed Bimantoro for the death of one of his supporters in East Java last week when police fired to halt a pro-Wahid mob that went on the rampage, burning churches and a mosque and attacking police with machetes.