as for the US and Aust govts rushing to shake his hand, me thinks that yes, this does mean he's pro-capitalist (which candidate wasn't?), but it really means that they're trying real hard to make friends before wahid decides that china can be their best and only friend -- this being a fair certaintly given wahid's close associations with the chinese in indonesia, and something already in the pipeline after the break b/n aust and indonesian military ties.
i'm also think that as we speak, megawati is being urged to go as deputy (in order to calm the situation), but i also have a feeling that megawati realises that doing so might be in fact split sections of the pdi-p. i've little idea what the next day or so will bring; but i would be surprised if wiranto was far from the centre of discussions.
in the meantime, some background (mostly uncritical) on wahid below.
Angela _________
"The 1994 NU Congress and Aftermath: Abdurrahman Wahid, Suksesi and the Battle for Control of NU" by Greg Fealy
... Abdurrahman's Chairmanship
Abdurrahman first rose to prominence in NU in the early 1980s as one of the leaders of the reform movement known as the 'Situbondo group', which advocated a return to khittah 1926. Opposing this reform agenda was the so-called 'Cipete group' headed by the long-serving NU chairman, KH Idham Chalid. At the 1984 NU congress the Situbondo group, with the support of the government, swept into power. Abdurrahman was elected as chairman, a position for which he possessed an impeccable pedigree. His grandfather, Hasjim Asj'ari, was a co-founder of NU and his father, Wahid Hasjim, a former deputy chairman of the organisation and Minister of Religious Affairs.
During his first two terms as NU chairman, Abdurrahman Wahid had seldom been far from controversy. He had repeatedly spoken out on such sensitive issues as political reform, social equality, human rights. and religious and racial tolerance. He had argued that Islam has no definite concept of, or prescription for the state, speculated that the Muslim salutation 'assalam alaikum' may one day be replaced with the Indonesian greeting 'selamat pagi', opposed the banning of Salmon Rushdie's The Satanic Verses and the Indonesian magazine Monitor for blaspheming the Prophet Muhammad, attended Christian church services and maintained close links to Christian and Chinese intellectuals and businessmen, and contended that Indonesia should allow for the possibility of a non-Muslim head of state.
Unlike most Muslim leaders he refused to join the government-sponsored Ikatan Cendekiawan Muslimin Indonesia (Association for Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals) or ICMI, which he claimed had sectarian tendencies, and later became the founding chairman of Forum Demokrasi, a discussion group aimed at promoting democratisation in Indonesia. In mid-1994 he again made headlines for suggesting that large numbers of NU members who were disillusioned with PPP and the government party, Golkar, might support PDI (the Indonesian Democratic Party) at the next election. His most recent controversy came on the eve of the NU congress when he broke an unofficial ban on travel to Israel by accepting an invitation to Jerusalem to witness the signing of the Israel-Jordan peace treaty. It is actions such as these, combined with an uncompromising and often dismissive approach towards his opponents, which have so divided opinion about his leadership.
For his admirers, Abdurrahman Wahid was a brave and inspirational leader who had expanded the horizons of his Muslim constituency and strived to make Indonesia a more just society. They assert that under his leadership NU had become a more progressive and relevant force in the nation's development. Within NU support for his renomination came predominantly from Java-based branches, particularly those in East and Central Java. He also had an enthusiastic following among younger, more reform-minded NU activists.
Outside the organisation, Abdurrahman Wahid had considerable backing from ABRI (the Indonesian Armed Forces) and especially army traditionalists such as General Edi Sudrajat. the Minister for Defence. Despite objecting to many of the NU chairman's views about liberalisation and human rights, ABRI regarded him as a valuable ally in the struggle against Soeharto's 're-Islamising' of Indonesian politics and the concomitant growth in power of ICMI and its chairman, the Minister fur Research and Technology, Dr B. J. Habibie. Suspicion of Islam as a political force remains strong in ABRI, a sentiment reinforced since the late 1980s by the President's cultivation of Muslim support as a means of counterbalancing the military's influence. In addition to army backing, Abdurrahman Wahid also drew support from amongst NGO circles and liberal intellectuals.