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Washington, D.C., August 3, 2001 – Former Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid issued a barrage of criticism against his detractors during an exclusive interview earlier this week in Baltimore with the Voice of America’s Indonesian editor.

First it was the Supreme Court and the People’s Consultative Assembly who were “afraid of losing their jobs” if they declared his impeachment unconstitutional, he said, adding he was disappointed by too many politicians who seemed “willing to cooperate to bring back dictatorship.”  He believes the results would have been different if the impeachment vote had been secret, rather than by open ballot, as required by the Indonesian constitution.  “Many members of Parliament expressed disagreement with the decision to impeach me, but because it was an open vote, they were afraid to stand alone.”

As for the press, Wahid lamented the failure of his efforts to reform the media environment in Indonesia.  He said he had worked hard to develop a free press but blamed the fifth estate for “conspiring against him” and “misusing this freedom” by accepting bribes and “going too far.” 

Indonesia’s military “always show a nice face, but they stabbed me in the back,” Wahid said, and added that the military was “unprofessional” when it did not obey his declaration of a state of emergency which should have disbanded Parliament.  “Many of them are good, but the wrong should be brought to court.  Instead, they are protected,” the deposed president told VOA.

The former president also told VOA he would establish the “Free People Foundation” upon his return to Indonesia as a forum for him to continue to fight for democracy, human rights and religious tolerance in the world’s largest Muslim nation.

The interview was aired by VOA and rebroadcast across Indonesia on Indosiar, a national television network, on the eve of Wahid’s departure from the United States.  The Indonesian language program, Halo VOA, also featured reaction and comments by political economist Christianto Wibisono, and a question-and-answer session with a dozen Indonesian callers.

The Voice of America is a multimedia international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. Government. VOA broadcasts over 900 hours of news, information, educational, and cultural programming every week to an audience of some 91 million worldwide.  VOA broadcasts more than 2 ½ hours a day of Indonesian programming including 2 weekly television news programs, 1 ½ hours of Special English for non-native English speakers, and a 24-hour English news service, VOA News Now, for its Indonesian audience.  In addition, VOA provides special programming to East Timor in English, Portuguese and Indonesian.  Worldwide, VOA programs are produced and broadcast in 53 languages.

For additional information, please contact the Office of External Affairs at (202) 619-2538 or send email to pubaff@voa.gov.