Indonesia's attorney-general cleared President Abdurrahman Wahid yesterday of wrongdoing over graft scandals that drew parliamentary censure and threatened impeachment. But pressure to oust him is expected to persist.
Mr Wahid earlier told security forces to enforce law and order, although his nationally televised address left little clue as to how the country's deepening leadership crisis might be resolved, except to warn that attempts to oust him would break the nation apart.
"I order the co-ordinating minister of politics and security to take action and special steps needed in co-ordination with security forces to tackle the crisis, to enforce law and order and security as soon as possible," the near-blind Mr Wahid said in the announcement, read for him by an official.
But the only violence yesterday was from thousands of Wahid supporters, who attacked offices of rival parties in East Java, his stronghold. At the weekend offices of the party of his vice-president, Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri, were attacked.
Parliament is almost certain to press tomorrow for impeachment hearings against Mr Wahid over his chaotic 19month rule, despite Attorney-General Marzuki Darusman clearing him of any involvement in two graft scandals.
The decision is unlikely to derail the growing pressure to oust Mr Wahid because the criticism has moved beyond the scandals to a more general attack on his leadership.
Chief Security Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the man yesterday's order charges with ensuring security, said any impeachment hearing could trigger more violence and appealed to political leaders to calm their followers.
He continued: "In the next three months, the situation is expected to be critical. Security disturbances will escalate and . . . (social) conflict can grow."
In a bid to head off efforts to oust him, Mr Wahid last week offered the popular Vice-President Megawati effective control of government, but her aides have said she will spurn the move.
Mr Wahid looks increasingly isolated as he seeks ways to cling to power, and even the military has shown signs of siding with his deputy.
Mr Yudhoyono, a former general, has already made clear he would not support Mr Wahid's threat to declare a state of civil emergency.
A civil emergency is one step below martial law and would give police wide-ranging powers of search and arrest, impose a curfew and press censorship and could shut down parliament. The political crisis is continuing to press down the Indonesian rupiah, which hit a one-month low amid concerns Mr Wahid would declare a state of emergency.
But stocks rose slightly on the belief among investors that any change of leadership would be positive, dealers said.
Police have warned that they will get tough in the run-up to tomorrow's parliamentary vote and would shoot troublemakers.
Thousands of Wahid's supporters and opponents have threatened to take to the streets of Jakarta as parliament sits - at the same time as, and just a few hundred metres away from, a summit of leaders of the G-15 group of developing nations.
There are fears the latest political crisis could plunge the world's fourth most populous nation back into violence three years to the month after the bloody downfall of autocratic former President Suharto.
Thousands of Wahid's supporters have formed suicide squads to defend the ailing Muslim cleric, training in martial arts and mystic powers in camps in the rice paddies and sugarcane fields of East Java.
The threat of violence may be Mr Wahid's final card.