Embattled Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid early this morning issued a decree ordering both houses of parliament to be suspended only hours before they were due to start impeachment proceedings. Althought he stopped short of using the actual words, the decree effectively ordered a state of emergency.
Mr Wahid said in a brief nationally-televised address he was acting to save the troubled nation.
Describing the country as in a 'constitutional crisis' and suffering 'a conflict of political powers', he said the unity of the nation would be destroyed if parliament was allowed to go ahead with the impeachment.
'So it is with a heavy heart, as President and as commander in chief of the Indonesian defence forces, that I issue the carrying out of this declaration,' said Mr Wahid. He also ordered the police and military to prevent the impeachment hearing. His spokesman then read out the declaration which ordered 'the disbanding of the Peoples' Consultative Assembly (MPR) and the House of Representatives (DPR)', and 'giving back to the people the mandate and the institutions of carrying out an election in one year's time'.
An aide said fresh elections would be held within a year and that the activities of the second largest party, former president Suharto's Golkar, would be frozen.
A top army general told Reuters that the military opposed the decree, and said the military would hold a news conference at 9.00am today.
Mr Whaid's dramatic and long-delayed announcement effectively puts the fate of the parliamentary process and his own presidency in the hands of the armed forces and the police.
