Grounded Wahid criticized over Australian visit

Wahid leaves behind what observers say is a growing rift between him and his deputy, Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri

DARWIN, Australia -- After making an unscheduled landing in Darwin when his plane developed engine trouble, Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid touched down in the far northern city to find his problems at home undiminished.

Wahid, Indonesia's most traveled president, is the first to visit Australia officially in 26 years of often tense relations between the neighbors.

His trip had been postponed five times by domestic and bilateral problems.

But the timing of the president's visit still attracted criticism at home Monday, with commentators asking whether he should be making the five-day trip, which is also due to take in New Zealand and the Philippines, despite facing imminent impeachment over his tumultuous 20-month rule and two financial scandals.

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"While the historic visit will do wonders for Indonesia's foreign policy, it will do almost nothing for (Wahid's) standing at home," the Jakarta Post said in an editorial on Monday.

"Coming just one week after a 30 percent hike in domestic fuel prices, the Australian visit is seen as another extravaganza by the president who seems to have lost both his sense of crisis and sense of priority."

Australian air force jets were sent to collect Indonesian Wahid from Darwin.

Three Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Falcon jets were on their way to pick up the president and his entourage and fly them to the Australian capital of Canberra, a defense department spokesman told CNN.

The Indonesian military plane carrying Wahid was forced to land at a RAAF base in Darwin at dawn because of a mechanical problem with one of the jet's four engines.

President Wahid is expected to arrive in Canberra at around 5pm (0700 GMT) where he will be given a full ceremonial welcome.

He will then attend a formal reception and dinner hosted by Australia's head of state Governor-General William Deane.

After a series of meetings in Canberra Tuesday morning, the president will travel to Australia's largest city, Sydney, in the afternoon.

Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Monday the visit was important and would consolidate the relationship between Australia and Indonesia.

"The meeting between the president of Indonesia in Australia with our prime minister for the first time in a quarter of a century is, I think, a very strong statement of how the relationship now stands," he said.

The transport woes are the latest in a long list of obstacles on the path to Wahid's visit.

August impeachment

Relations between Jakarta and Canberra almost collapsed two years ago when Australian forces led an international peacekeeping force sent in to quell mob violence in East Timor following the territory's landmark vote in favor of independence from Indonesia.

Many nationalist Indonesian politicians saw the Australian move as giving backing to groups seeking to carve out separate homelands in Indonesia and a number of anti-Australian protests were held in Jakarta.

However Australia sees this trip as a chance for the two nations to start afresh.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard told media Sunday he hoped the visit would "represent to some degree a ruling off on some of the more difficult phases of our realtionship."

Howard said those difficulties were understandable given the situation in East Timor.

Wahid is going ahead with the visit despite plans by opposition lawmakers to begin impeachment proceedings against him on August 1.

The ageing president has been fighting hard in recent weeks to fend off moves by critics who accuse him of incompetence and involvement in two cases of corruption.

They say they will vote him out of office and replace him with Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of Indonesia's founding president, Sukarno.

Wahid, Indonesia's first democratically elected president, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and vowed to stay in power until his term ends in 2004.