Indonesia’s Wahid Apologizes for Record

Under fire from friend and foe alike, Indonesia’s enigmatic president apologized Monday for his shortcomings and told lawmakers tough action was needed against separatists to prevent the country’s disintegration.

Abdurrahman Wahid, a frail and legally blind Muslim cleric who recites the Koran on his treadmill every morning, was led to the podium of the nation’s highest legislative body by two soldiers and, in an 85-minute speech read by an aide, asked for more time to chart a course for the world’s fourth-most-populous nation.

“We are in the process of soul-searching to find out what we want for the country and what our country should be,” Wahid, Indonesia’s first democratically elected president, told the People’s Consultative Assembly, or MPR, many of whose 700 members are exasperated by his unorthodox style and the slow pace of reform.

His nationally televised appearance before the assembly was tantamount to a state of the nation address. Although it received only a lukewarm response, there was a sense of relief in parliament that outside, on Jakarta’s often-riotous streets, all was quiet and that the 10-day session had gotten off to the “safe and smooth” start Wahid had promised.

The military stationed a 28,000-man security force around parliament and other key sites in Jakarta in anticipation of anti-government demonstrations. But students who led unruly protests that forced the resignation of Indonesia’s longtime ruler Suharto in 1998 said they had no plans for street action during the MPR session, where the seeds of an emerging democracy were very much in evidence. Under Suharto, the MPR did little except meet for his unopposed reelection every five years.

Some of the students’ passions were defused by the announcement Thursday that Suharto, 79 and under house arrest for months, had been charged with siphoning off more than $500 million in state funds. His trial for corruption is among the students’ key demands.

Although there had been murmurings of impeachment before the MPR met, as well as worries about violence, the anger in the streets that characterized the anti-Suharto movement has been muted by Wahid’s well-intended, if mismanaged, stewardship. In the end, diplomatic analysts say, it will be economic, not political, issues that will decide his administration’s fate.

Wahid, 60, a popular reformer committed to democracy, was elected to a five-year term in October, unleashing a groundswell of hope in a nation beset by corruption, widespread communal violence, a crippled economy, a repressive military and numbing poverty. After 32 years of Suharto’s ironfisted rule and the shaky 17-month presidency of B. J. Habibie, Indonesians--and the international community--were ecstatic.

“On a personal level, Wahid is much loved in the West,” said Jeffrey Winters, a Northwestern University expert on Indonesia who is in Jakarta observing the MPR session. “Compared to the dour and inward-looking Suharto, Wahid is cosmopolitan and a genuine wit. When he’s in Paris, he quotes Voltaire and Rousseau in French. He can cite Locke and Jefferson. When in the Middle East, he debates the Koran and trades tall tales in fluent Arabic.

“And yet the diplomatic corps in Jakarta has come to the reluctant conclusion that Wahid’s presidency is an administrative disaster. Nothing is working right. One could easily blame his lackluster Cabinet, except that it has been utterly overshadowed and undercut by Wahid’s erratic behavior and by the economic and political convulsions his presidency has permitted or made worse.”

Always unpredictable, self-confident and wily, Wahid has raised concerns by making contradictory statements, sacking respected ministers and ignoring advisors, failing to stop communal violence in northern Sumatra’s Aceh province and in the Moluccas, spending too much time abroad and often being inattentive.

On Monday, he even fell asleep while his own speech was being read and was nudged awake by aides who gave him rock candy.

“To the people of Indonesia,” Wahid told the MPR, “I apologize if in the past 10 months the government has not fully solved all the problems.”

He promised to provide better leadership and said he will reshuffle his Cabinet after the session. He also reiterated that he will offer special autonomy to Aceh and to Irian Jaya, the western half of New Guinea, which are rich in resources and home to separatist movements that have led to bloodshed. However, he said that he will not compromise or tolerate separatism.

Government sources said talks are underway with Wahid to free him from some day-to-day affairs by delegating more powers to Indonesia’s popular but low-key vice president, Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of Indonesia’s founding father and first president, Sukarno, or by appointing a “senior minister” who would function as a prime minister. A leading candidate for such a position, the sources said, is Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a retired general who is minister for mines and energy.

Wahid took credit in his address for moving Indonesia ahead on the road to democracy, promoting human rights and religious tolerance and freeing the press from government controls. He noted improvement in the economy, which grew at a faster-than-expected 4% in the second quarter compared with a year earlier, though 31 million of Indonesia’s 212 million people still live on less than $1 a day. Wahid also has been lauded for clipping the excessive powers of the military.

Lawmakers will debate amendments to the 1945 constitution in the days ahead and offer critiques of Wahid’s performance. But they have agreed to dismiss the idea of replacing him. “The most important thing is that we have given him another chance to do his job as president,” said Akbar Tanjung, speaker of parliament and a frequent Wahid critic.