Indonesia fast tracks Wahid impeachment

Wahid ponders his future

By staff and wire reports

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Five major parliamentary factions call on Indonesia's top legislature to bring forward an impeachment hearing against President Abdurrahman Wahid. Citing uncertainty over his political maneuvers and the threat of further unrest, Wahid may face the People's Consultative Assembly earlier than August 1 -- the current date of the special session.

Wahid will face the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) on the special session, currently slated for August 1, after being censured over two financial scandals and his chaotic 20-month rule.

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"In the past two months the president has been taking dangerous steps...so we call on the MPR (People's Consultative Assembly) to take the initiative to bring forward the special session," Syamsul Muarif, head of the Golkar party faction, told reporters.

Wahid has sacked seven ministers this month and made the national police chief "non-active" -- a move rejected by the police chief himself.

While the constitution does not allow a special session to be expedited, Muarif said it could be done under a House rule.

The other factions supporting the move included the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P), Indonesia's largest and headed by Vice President, Megawati Sukarnoputri.

The Indonesian media said faction leaders would propose bringing the hearing forward to June 25 or July 1, in spite of Wahid's plans to make another trip abroad.

East Java trouble spot

Scores of people have been arrested following clashes between protesters and police

Meanwhile, police have fired warning shots to disperse thousands of workers protesting new labor laws in East Java as cabinet ministers meet to discuss a 30 percent fuel price increase, which had been postponed.

Police have warned that the protests against two ministerial decrees, which would end severance pay, were getting out of hand.

Witnesses said about 3,000 workers, some of them wielding sticks, rallied in the major industrial city of Surabaya, the capital of East Java, embattled President Abdurrahman Wahid's political heartland.

Raising fuel prices is a sensitive issue in poverty-stricken Indonesia and triggered mass riots which helped topple former president Suharto three years ago.

The government aborted plans for a 20 percent rise in April, fearing it would trigger unrest across the giant archipelago.

Laws reviewed

Manpower Minister Al Hilal Hamdi, who issued the controversial decrees, told reporters on Friday he would meet with labor groups and industries to try and resolve the spiraling dispute.

"There will be a general review of the policy and the laws concerning labor," Hamdi said without elaborating.

In a separate development, ex-president Suharto, who was fitted with a permanent pacemaker on Wednesday after suffering heart trouble, left hospital in a wheelchair on Friday, smiling and waving to onlookers.

Reuters contributed to this report.