Impeachment process unstoppable, Wahid told

Indonesian soldiers stand guard over barricades in East Java, where one person was killed

By staff and wire reports

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- The impeachment process against Indonesia's President Abdurrahman Wahid is unstoppable, the Speaker of Parliament, Amien Rais, has told CNN.

He added in an interview on Thursday that a power-sharing arrangement may still be possible "after we have a new president," referring to the present Vice President, Megawati Sukarnoputri.

"The process of impeachment is an absolute necessity," Rais said. "There is no way for [Wahid] to avoid the special session, even if today he makes a decree. We will ignore the decree."

Supporters of Wahid still hope he can negotiate with hostile lawmakers to save his presidency despite the impeachment process that began Wednesday with an overwhelming vote in Parliament.

The motion was passed at the end of a day marked by riots in Wahid's political stronghold of East Java, where one person was killed, and in the capital, Jakarta, where his supporters stormed the gates of the parliament complex.

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A spokesman for Wahid said that the president had "no intention of quitting" or invoking earlier threats to declare a state of emergency and dissolve Parliament.

Rais told CNN's Veronica Pedrosa on Thursday: "He is quite stubborn, quite recalcitrant... but the legal procedure, the constitutional mechanism, will take place as expected."

Everything would be settled in "a matter of months." "I think he is counting his days now. I'm sorry to say this," Rais said.

Wahid, Indonesia's first democratically elected president, has twice been censured by the lower house of parliament for allegedly being involved in two financial scandals.

Opposition to him has broadened, with critics charging that his 19-month rule has been riddled with incompetence and that he has failed to turn around the country's troubled economy or curb regional violence.

Megawati 'improved'

Rais said he looked forward to Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri, head of the Indonesia's largest party, the PDIP, taking over as president, though he admitted he has not always given her his support.

"Megawati, I believe, has improved a lot in the past two years by being vice president," Rais told CNN.

"She has a lot of experience in managing the state affairs. And as long as she listens to the good advice and she does not repeat the mistakes committed by Wahid, believe me -- God willing -- she will make a better president."

Wahid has pleaded for restraint as his supporters made good threats to unleash violence should the impeachment proceed.

"Just be patient. Just be calm," the president, who is also a Muslim cleric, told them.

Wahid is unlikely to win official backing to implement emergency laws because the military is expected to side with his more predictable vice president.

The parliamentary humiliation came at an uncomfortable time for Wahid, who on the same day opened a meeting of the Group of 15 developing countries attended by several heads of government a few hundred metres away.

That meeting concludes on Thursday

Parliament is now expected to form a working committee to determine the date of the MPR session, which will probably be two months from now.