People are counting from the day one the President sitting in the Palace till today how many controversial statements that he made, and what is the underlying damage to the people. And I think that's basically what the students and the peoples wants to see. In a last measure before heading overseas, President Wahid took the precaution of calling together the chiefs of the armed forces and police, the defence minister, attorney general and intelligence chief. The message was to maintain security in his absence. In the past month there have been a series of violent demonstrations both for and against President Wahid.
Political analysts say some of the protests have been organised by rival politicians.
Dr Greg Barton, President Wahid's biographer and friend, concedes that right now the leader's chips are down. He's either on his way out, which is the feeling here these last few weeks. I think there's a real realisation this is the most serious crisis, the most serious test so far in 16 months. Now his enemies would like to have a power sharing arrangement that just divested him of all real power. Indonesia's parliament is flexing its collective muscle against President Wahid, a tussle between the legislature and the President came to a head earlier this month when a parliamentary investigation implicated Wahid in two multi-million dollar corruption scandals.