Wahid Promises to Keep Fighting for Democracy

Deposed Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid, arriving in the United States for medical treatment Friday, conceded that he is no longer the leader of his nation but insisted that his ouster was unlawful.

“They have done an unconstitutional thing,” he told reporters at Dulles International Airport outside Washington. “The constitution will only be upheld by people like myself.”

Asked if he still should be president according to his country’s constitution, Wahid said: “Oh, yes. But the reality is that I am not president any longer.”

Looking relaxed and in good spirits as attendants brought him and his wife out of airport customs in wheelchairs, Wahid smiled as he was surrounded by a flurry of video cameras, flashes and reporters’ microphones. He repeatedly said he intends only to always “fight for democracy” in his homeland.

Wahid, 60, is scheduled to spend five days at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, where he will undergo treatment that he said will help him “avoid the recurrence of stroke.”

The Muslim cleric was removed from the presidency Monday by the People’s Consultative Assembly, Indonesia’s highest governing body, on allegations of corruption and incompetence. He denies any wrongdoing.

Dressed in a golden-brown floral shirt, Wahid declined to comment on his successor, President Megawati Sukarnoputri. Megawati has been preparing to move into the presidential palace after the former leader brought his holdout there to an end, and Wahid said he will reserve judgment on her government until she has fully assembled her Cabinet.

In his brief comments Friday, Wahid first indicated that he will not try to reclaim the presidency.

“I just want to fight for democracy,” he said.

Still, he gave apparently contradictory answers to successive questions about his plans.

“I don’t care--it’s not my intention,” Wahid first said when asked if democracy can prevail only if he reassumes the presidency.

But then, asked if he would run for president again, he replied, “If the people want me to.”

Wahid also addressed Thursday’s assassination in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, of a Supreme Court judge who last year issued an 18-month prison sentence to the son of former dictator Suharto.

Of the killing of Judge Syaifudin Kartasasmita, who had found Hutomo “Tommy” Mandala Putra guilty of stealing $11 million in government money, Wahid said, “It shows that there is still a long way to establishing the rule of law” in Indonesia.

When asked to speculate whether the forces of Suharto or his son may have been behind the slaying, Wahid laughed hesitantly and declined further comment. Hutomo has been in hiding, and some Indonesians have said they believe that military officials loyal to his father are helping to conceal him.

Officials from the Indonesian Embassy briskly wheeled Wahid outside the terminal, where diplomatic limousines were waiting to take him and his entourage to the hospital.

Wahid got up from the wheelchair on his own and sat in one of the vehicles. His wife, Siti Nuriyah, dressed in a bright red floral outfit, with a cloth covering her head in traditional Muslim style, sat in another.

Before entering the vehicles, however, the two were greeted by Indonesian immigrants who had traveled to the airport in hopes of meeting the former president, whom they said they still support.

Silvia Firdaus, 20, a Falls Church, Va., resident who immigrated to the U.S. with her parents a decade ago, bowed reverently before Wahid and his wife and kissed Wahid’s hand in a gesture of respect.

Firdaus said her family does not support the government of Megawati but added, “It’s [Wahid’s] choice” as to whether he should try to return to the presidency.