The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, the largest in the People's Consultative Assem-bly (MPR), rejected President B.J. Habibie's accountability speech yesterday, the Jakarta Post reported last night.
"Habibie's 16 months of administration has failed," the paper quoted a party spokesperson as saying.
Meanwhile, riot police used tear gas and batons yesterday to disperse thousands of anti-government demonstrators as the criticism mounted against Habibie and eroded his chances of being re-elected next week.
About 30 protesters were hospitalized and 10 policemen injured in clashes that closed the city's business district for hours.
Habibie frowned and took notes on the stage in the national legislature last night as disgruntled members of the 700-member MPR assailed his 16-month record.
Indonesia's highest lawmaking body will decide who will be Indonesia's head of state on Wednesday next week.
It is unclear what the outcome will be. The world's fourth most populous nation is now grappling with a difficult transition to democracy after decades of authoritarian rule under ex-President Suharto.
Habibie, Suharto's one-time prot?g?, is one of three presidential candidates, and he made an impassioned defense of his turbulent tenure to the legislators in an "accountability" speech Thursday night. He said he introduced democracy and saved Indonesia's battered economy.
But when the assembly reconvened yesterday, speaker after speaker attacked the president.
Within the next few days, the legislators will vote whether to accept or reject Habibie's speech. If they reject it, Habibie will have little choice but to withdraw his nomination.
"Habibie is Suharto's crony and Suharto's shadow," said Zulvan Lindan of the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, led by Habibie's main rival, Megawati Sukarnoputri.
Even Habibie's own party, Golkar, which nominated him for the presidency, questioned his handling of two key issues -- the dropping of a corruption investigation against Suharto and the East Timor crisis.
"How serious is the government about dealing with graft?" said Prio Budi Santos, the leader of Golkar's lawmakers, during the nationally televised proceedings in the parliament.
Hours earlier, as many as 5,000 protesters, a mixture of students, opposition supporters and the unemployed, blocked Jakarta's main boulevard near parliament.
CHAOS: Iranians took to the streets playing celebratory music after reports of Khamenei’s death on Saturday, while mourners also gathered in Tehran yesterday Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the US, throwing the future of the Islamic republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability. Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency announced the 86-year-old’s death early yesterday. US President Donald Trump said it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country. The announcements came after a joint US and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites. Trump said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue through the week or as long
TRUST: The KMT said it respected the US’ timing and considerations, and hoped it would continue to honor its commitments to helping Taiwan bolster its defenses and deterrence US President Donald Trump is delaying a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan to ensure his visit to Beijing is successful, a New York Times report said. The weapons sales package has stalled in the US Department of State, the report said, citing US officials it did not identify. The White House has told agencies not to push forward ahead of Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), it said. The two last month held a phone call to discuss trade and geopolitical flashpoints ahead of the summit. Xi raised the Taiwan issue and urged the US to handle arms sales to
BIG SPENDERS: Foreign investors bought the most Taiwan equities since 2005, signaling confidence that an AI boom would continue to benefit chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) market capitalization swelled to US$2 trillion for the first time following a 4.25 percent rally in its American depositary receipts (ADR) overnight, putting the world’s biggest contract chipmaker sixth on the list of the world’s biggest companies by market capitalization, just behind Amazon.com Inc. The site CompaniesMarketcap.com ranked TSMC ahead of Saudi Aramco and Meta Platforms Inc. The Taiwanese company’s ADRs on Tuesday surged to US$385.75 on the New York Stock Exchange, as strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications led to chip supply constraints and boost revenue growth to record-breaking levels. Each TSMC ADR represents
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that it had confirmed on Saturday night with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil suppliers that shipments are proceeding as scheduled and that domestic supplies remain unaffected. The CPC yesterday announced the gasoline and diesel prices will rise by NT$0.2 and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, starting Monday, citing Middle East tensions and blizzards in the eastern United States. CPC also iterated it has been reducing the proportion of crude oil imports from the Middle East and diversifying its supply sources in the past few years in response to geopolitical risks, expanding
RSS