Leading Indonesian politicians met at a Jakarta mosque Friday for what media reports said were talks on dumping President Abdurrahman Wahid and shifting support to Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri.
But the politicians, who included arch-Wahid foe and national assembly speaker Amien Rais, all made it clear they were not planning a coup, but seeking a constitutional change of leadership, the SCTV private broadcaster said yesterday.
Wahid, who has been under fire since being censored by parliament on Feb. 1 over his alleged role in two corruption cases, is on a Haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. He is due back in Jakarta on Tuesday.
At Friday's meeting in Jakarta's Al Azhar mosque, the "unspoken conclusion" was that any change of leadership should be constitutional, Rais was quoted as saying by the Jakarta Post.
"People ... should mentally prepare themselves to face another change of leadership," Rais said.
Present at the mosque talks were Megawati's husband, businessman Taufik Kiemas, and leaders of her Indonesian Democracy Party Struggle (PDIP), the Muslim-oriented United Development Party (PPP) and the Golkar Party.
The PDIP and the Golkar Party hold the largest and second-largest blocks of seats in parliament and the national assembly.
Wahid became Indonesia's first democratically-elected president in October of 1999, but his popularity has since nose-dived.
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