Indonesian President Abdurrah-man Wahid yesterday raised the stakes in his increasingly desperate attempts to hang on to power by threatening to declare a civil emergency if parliament went ahead with efforts to impeach him.
A civil emergency is one step below martial law and would give police wide-ranging powers of search and arrest and impose a curfew and press censorship though a civil administration would remain in charge.
But it is far from certain that the security forces, which have been increasingly favoring his estranged vice-president, would follow the order.
"President Abdurrahman Wahid sees a civil emergency as an alternative if a special session is implemented," presidential spokesman Adhie Massardi told reporters. He said that if the session went ahead "the reaction from people would be uncontrollable" but added Wahid was still trying to convince MPs to change their minds.
Parliament meets on Wednesday to decide whether to take its two formal censures of Wahid a step further and call on the top legislature, the People's Consultative Assembly, to convene for impeachment hearings.
MPs, almost united in their criticism of Wahid's stumbling 19-month rule, account for 500 of the 700-seat assembly.
They have already pledged to reject his offer to transfer power to enigmatic deputy, Megawati Sukarnoputri, which he made on Friday in the hope of staving off the impeachment move.
Despite the mounting leadership crisis, which many fear could plunge the nation back into bloody violence, Megawati has refused to be rushed into deciding whether to accept the offer. If she rejects the offer, the impeachment hearings are a near certainty.
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