Indonesian lawmakers yesterday elected Megawati Sukarnoputri, daughter of the country's founding leader, as the fourth president in as many turbulent years, sacking her disgraced predecessor for incompetence.
The supreme People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) dumped Abdurrahman Wahid just hours after he declared a state of emergency and tried to dissolve the legislature in a desperate pre-dawn bid to hold on to power.
As the MPR decided his fate, Wahid was holed up behind razor wire barricades in the colonial-era presidential palace, where aides said he laughed and joked over lunch and refused to leave.
His adviser and confidant told Australian radio however, Wahid accepted his fate, but was in a state of shock.
"There is, of course, a rather sombre mood [in the palace]," biographer and academic Greg Barton told ABC television. "It's a sad acceptance of what now appears to be inevitable. I think for the president most of all, it's come as a shock and he's having trouble dealing with it."
The world's fourth-most populous nation, ruled by autocrats for most of its history, has never had a peaceful transition of power. But there were no immediate signs of unrest yesterday.
After taking the oath of office, Megawati read a seven-minute speech urging all sides to accept her election.
"I call on all parties to accept this democratic process ... this is the voice of the people which we must uphold," she said, dressed in a traditional white blouse and a batik sarong.
"Let us build our country together ... let us erase all the fights among us which have only deepened the sorrow of the people."
She later said she would name her cabinet within several days.
But a big question mark also hangs over Megawati's own abilities to govern and those of her new team.
Megawati's party won the most votes in the 1999 parliamentary election but is still well short of a majority. Like Wahid, she will be forced to rely on an inherently unstable series of alliances to serve out her term to 2004.
Neighbors Thailand and Singapore welcomed Megawati's rise. And ASEAN, to which those two countries belong, recognized Megawati as the new president, the group's secretary-general said.
The country's beleaguered rupiah rose over 10 percent on the news and stocks hit a 10-month high on Friday in anticipation of Wahid's ouster.
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