Indonesia's beleaguered President Abdurrahman Wahid yesterday apologised for his mistakes, promised a cabinet reshuffle that will leave him with only a backseat in government and pledged to keep the country from tearing itself apart.
"A cabinet reshuffle will be done when the time is right," Mr Wahid, known as "Gus Dur" (60), said in a progress report to an annual session of the upper house, or People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).
The report was read out by the Cabinet Secretary, Mr Marsilam Simanmjuntak, while the nearly blind president listened or frequently appeared to doze off in his chair nearby. It was his first account to the newly-feisty MPR which until last year had met only once every five years to rubber stamp the decisions of former President Suharto.
"A cabinet reshuffle also means that there will be a division of tasks. . . hence the President will focus on foreign affairs, assisted by the Foreign Minister," he said.
He added, without naming names, that others would take care of the "technical aspects", or the day-to-day running, of Indonesia's internal affairs.
"To all the people of Indonesia, I seek to apologise, if in this past nine months the government has not been able to fully overcome all problems, but trust us to work hard and continue to fight to do more."
The apology was the only part of Mr Wahid's speech which was greeted by an outburst of applause from the plenary.
The Jakarta Stock Exchange composite index was less forgiving. It lost 0.7 per cent, settling at 490.544 as investors took a wait-and-see attitude.
The battered rupiah was trading at 8,620-8,640 to the dollar, weaker than Friday's closing of 8,600 to the dollar.
Economists and political analysts have said the priority target for the cabinet reshuffle should be the economic team.
Indonesia's most senior economics official, the Co-ordinating Minister for the Economy, Finance and Industry, Mr Kwik Kian Gie, said he was ready to resign if the president decided so.
President Wahid said the whole nation needed to pull together to transform Indonesia into a democracy and pull the economy out of recession, and called for criticism and comments from the legislators.
Under fire for failing to live up to the optimism that accompanied his election as the country's first democratically-elected president in October, he has blamed "structural problems" such as corruption and weak law enforcement for the low public confidence in his team.
He spoke little of the unrest that plagues parts of the vast Indonesian archipelago, in which thousands have died and hundreds of thousands of others have been displaced, but concentrated on separatist movements. The government, he said, will not compromise with separatism, but the provinces of West Papua (Irian Jaya) and Aceh could be granted broad autonomy as early as this year.
Mr Wahid's supporters have accused Suharto loyalists of destabilising the country, but critics blame the fractious post-Suharto parties that helped elect President Wahid and now make up his "rainbow" coalition cabinet.
Around 66,000 security personnel were on duty in Jakarta or on call for the session.
Three small groups, including students, held peaceful protests at the parliament, but none even verbally attacked the president.
The country's first democratically-elected leader, in the words of a political analyst, Mr Kastorius Sinaga, was "cornered" when he faced the 700 members of MPR.
Mr Sinaga, an analyst with the anti-corruption group Gempita said: "One must keep in mind Gus Dur's penchant for changing his mind at will. He can promise, but as to whether he will actually do it, remains to be seen." Meanwhile the Indonesian Attorney General, Mr Marzuki Darusman, said the former President Suharto was fit enough to face trial for corruption during his 32-year rule.
Asked by reporters if he believed the 79-year-old Gen Suharto was well enough to be tried despite statements by the former general's lawyers that he was too ill, Mr Darusman said: "Yes. [He is] healthy enough. We have the latest medical reports which show that there is no change in his condition."
The Attorney General's office last week formally charged Gen Suharto with graft over the misuse of up to $550 million from seven charities he controlled while in power, bringing the onetime despot closer to a humiliating trial.