A group of retired Indonesian generals, politicians and other public figures wants the country's veteran leader, President Suharto, to step down, the Jakarta Post reported yesterday.
The 76-year-old leader, in power for the last 30 years, is widely expected to run for a seventh term when the electoral People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) meets in March.
It consists of the 500 members of the powerless House of Representatives and 500 people picked by Mr Suharto.
The newspaper quoted the nationalist National Brotherhood Foundation (YKPK) as suggesting that the assembly should not renominate Mr Suharto as president because of his age and poor health.
But the group, which is known for its strong, often critical, views of the government, said it would support Mr Suharto if he were re-elected.
"He has dedicated his life to the country for 50 years as a soldier and a statesman. We expect each faction in the assembly not to force and sacrifice him by asking him to carry out more heavy tasks," the group said in an opaquely worded statement which analysts described as a call for Mr Suharto's departure.
The English language paper said the statement was read out on Wednesday to the executive of the Muslim-oriented United Development Party (PPP), which finished second in May elections won by Mr Suharto's Golkar party.
The YKPK chairman, retired General Bambang Triantoro, said the group would support whoever was selected as president by the assembly, including Mr Suharto.
An increasing number of people have been questioning Mr Suharto's apparent determination to remain in power, with suggestions that a collective leadership was needed to get the country through its debilitating economic crisis.
There have also been calls for a national forum to bring together a wide range of people to discuss the nation's problems.
Indonesia's currency, the rupiah, has halved in value over the past month, suffering as great a loss as it did in the whole of 1997, and there are fears that the economic crisis could lead to social unrest.
Indonesia's powerful military yesterday urged the public not to panic over the meltdown in the country's financial markets.
"It is easy to say it, but have faith that the government is trying its best to handle the crisis," the official Antara news agency quoted Lieut Gen Yunus Yosfiah, the head of the socio-political affairs division of the military, as saying.
On Monday hundreds of shops and cars were damaged by thousands of rioters in the West Java capital of Bandung after a seemingly innocuous altercation between street vendors and public order officials.
Strikes are also becoming more frequent, particularly in the industrial heartland of Java, as workers protest against labour rights violations and job losses.
The rupiah's fall yesterday provoked panic buying of food and other essentials in Jakarta and elsewhere in the country, as people feared a round of sharp price increases, witnesses said.
They said rice, flour, sugar and cooking oil had disappeared from most supermarket shelves and that supplies of milk were fast dwindling.
Rumours of social unrest swirled in Jakarta as the stock market plunged on rumours that President Suharto would not seek re-election in March.