East Timor and Indonesia's Political Explosion
Against The Current vol. 83

http://www.solidarity-us.org/node/922
Date Written:  1999-11-01
Publisher:  Against The Current
Year Published:  1999
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX12917

As we go to press at the end of October, the 700-member Peoples Consultative Assembly (MPR, the national parliament) meeting in Jakarta reached some historic decisions.
In a seventy-two-hour period (October 19-21), the assembly rejected an "accountability" speech by President Habibie (who immediately withdrew his name for president); formally endorsed the August 30 referendum in East Timor, thus relinquishing its national claim to the territory; elected Muslim leader and supporter of reform Abdurrahman Wahid (popularly known as "Gus Dur") as the country's new president; and elected popular leader of the poor and students Megawati Sukarnoputri as the new vice-president.