Muslim Cleric Is Elected Indonesia’s President

Abdurrahman Wahid, a partly blind and frail Muslim cleric who previously had never run for political office, was elected Indonesia’s president Wednesday in a stunning upset that steers the world’s fourth most populous nation into uncharted waters.

The powerful military immediately said it will support Wahid, who won this nation’s first free presidential election in 44 years and was quickly sworn in. Wahid’s defeated rival, Megawati Sukarnoputri, called on her supporters to respect the result.

Wahid’s first gesture in the People’s Consultative Assembly, the 700-member body that elected him, also was conciliatory. He took Megawati’s hand and said, “I am here with you, Mega, to celebrate our victory and our democracy.”

The pair then walked into the streets to try to calm violent protests by her supporters, who had assumed a Megawati victory was a foregone conclusion.

Several thousand supporters, many of them young, unemployed toughs, rampaged through the streets here into the night and clashed with some of the 40,000 security troops on duty. Three crude bombs exploded, two near the assembly and one in the heart of the hotel district, injuring 25 people. No group claimed responsibility, and the disturbances tapered off early today. News agencies reported two people were killed.

Despite Wahid’s health problems--he suffered two strokes last year and underwent eye surgery this year in Salt Lake City--and the surprise of his victory, political analysts said he has the tools to be a strong and timely leader. Wahid has been propelled onto center stage just as Indonesia is making the transition to democracy after four decades of corrupt, nepotistic and often despotic rule.

“This is a man, clearly, the United States can work with,” Stanley Roth, U.S. assistant secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said in Washington.

Wahid--known by the nickname Gus Dur, which combines an honorific title and a shortening of his name--is a wily political maneuverer who speaks with a voice of moral authority. He is one of the few Indonesian leaders who has built bridges to all segments of this splintered society. He has good relations with the military, which is crucial for any civilian president, and is respected by everyone from former presidents Suharto and Habibie to the students whose protests brought down Suharto’s 32-year authoritarian regime last year and paved the way for democratic elections.

“The problem,” said Eki Syachrudin, vice secretary-general of Habibie’s Golkar party, “is that people treat Gus Dur like a saint. Arguing with him is like arguing with God. And how do you argue with God?”

Over many years, the moderate 59-year-old cleric has preached a doctrine that includes support for the separation of church and state, respect for human rights and promotion of democracy. Suharto at times considered him too Westernized and liberal. Others have cringed at his willingness to court controversy, such as his membership in Israel’s Peres Center for Peace and his visit to Tel Aviv in 1994, during which he called for greater understanding between Arabs and Jews.

Wahid’s prime base of support is Nahdlatul Ulama, a 30-million-member Muslim group co-founded by his grandfather. In many ways, the support of Islamic parties portends an increased role for religion in the politics of Indonesia, which has a larger Muslim population than any other nation. Islam traditionally has not played an important part in Indonesian politics.

Wahid said during his brief campaign that as president he would push for further democratic reforms and the economic restructuring sought by the International Monetary Fund. He does not consider himself a politician and, in fact, in an interview with a German newspaper published just hours before his election, he said: “I’m sick and tired of politics.”

“I want to become a teacher to the Indonesian people,” Wahid said in an interview with Indonesia’s Tempo magazine in December. “That’s all. I don’t want anything else. If I am now active in politics, it is just because it [teaching] is a calling.”

One remarkable aspect of Wahid’s victory is that three weeks ago he was not a candidate and was Megawati’s close ally. Victory seemed to be Megawati’s for the asking. Her Indonesian Democratic Party in Struggle won 34% of the popular vote in June’s election of the assembly, which, in Indonesia’s transition to democracy after decades of authoritarian rule, was given the task of electing the new president. Wahid’s National Awakening Party won only 12%.

When Habibie, president for the past 17 months, lost what was in effect a vote of confidence in the assembly early Wednesday and withdrew his election bid, Megawati only had to contend with Wahid’s longshot candidacy. By lunchtime, the streets here in the Indonesian capital were full of huge posters saying “Megawati: She’s My President.”

But Megawati, the daughter of Indonesia’s founder, President Sukarno, hardly campaigned. She gave few speeches or interviews. She did no coalition-building, took few positions on issues and offered no vision of Indonesia’s future.

After being snubbed by Megawati, who refused to offer concessions to Muslim parties to ensure their support, Wahid declared his candidacy and stitched together a coalition that Wednesday gave him 373 assembly votes--22 more than he needed to win. Megawati received 313 votes.

Although many stores and businesses closed and this capital remained tense into Wednesday night, the postelection rioting tapered off by early morning and was not particularly violent by the standards of an Indonesian election. Hundreds died in election riots during Suharto’s long reign, even though each of his six election victories was uncontested.

Civil unrest is but one of the many daunting challenges Wahid faces as chief executive. Indonesia’s economy is a shambles, having contracted 13% last year, and one-fifth of the nation’s more than 200 million people have fallen below the poverty line. Foreign investment dried up during nearly two years of political turmoil, and ethnic Chinese--victims of periodic racial violence--have parked billions of their dollars offshore.

There are regional rebellions in Aceh and Irian Jaya to deal with, as well as a transition to independence in the former province of East Timor, whose citizens voted Aug. 30 to secede from Indonesia. Corruption is rampant, and the International Monetary Fund has cut off its disbursements because of a banking scandal linked to Habibie’s associates.

The assembly is to vote today for a vice president from a list of four nominees: Megawati; armed forces chief Gen. Wiranto; Akbar Tanjung, chairman of Golkar; and Hamzah Haz, chairman of the Muslim-oriented United Development Party.

Profile: Abdurrahman Wahid

* Born: Aug. 4, 1940, in Jombang, northeastern Java. Son and grandson of Muslim scholars.

* Education: Al-Azhar Islamic University in Cairo, 1964. Degree in Arabic studies, University of Baghdad in Iraq, 1966.

* Career highlights: Dean at Hasyim Asyari University in Jombang, 1972-74. Secretary-general of Tebuireng Pesantren (Islamic boarding school) in Jombang, 1974-80. Chosen first secretary of 30-million member Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama, 1979. Chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama, 1984-present. Nahdlatul Ulama co-founded by grandfather, K. H. Wahid Hasyim.

* Family: Married to Siti Nuriyah; four children.

* Heroes: Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser, China’s Chou En-lai and India’s Mohandas K. “Mahatma” Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. (March interview with Straits Times newspaper in Singapore.)

* Quote: “I want to become a teacher to the Indonesian people. That’s all. I don’t want anything else. If I am now active in politics, it is just because it [teaching] is a calling.” (December 1998 interview with Indonesia’s Tempo magazine.)