New York Times July 5, 2000
Indonesia's President Parries Criticism With a Rapier Tongue By SETH MYDANS
JAKARTA, Indonesia, July 4 -- The biographer of Abdurrahman Wahid, Indonesia's unpredictable president, thinks he has him figured out: he is the drunken swordsman in the martial arts movie who disarms his enemies with his seeming foolishness, then cuts them down.
"He's a great master who looks like a complete walk-over," said the biographer, Greg Barton, an Australian political scientist. "Suddenly there's a whirl of limbs and then everyone is lying on the floor."
The swords are out again this week as the president and his many opponents start slicing the air in advance of a special parliamentary session next month.
Some people are talking about impeachment, although the national assembly does not technically have that power. At the least, it will be a grandstand for the national harangue that has dogged Mr. Wahid since his improbable election last October.
Nobody saw it coming -- though by now they should have -- when Mr. Wahid (who in fact is not a drinker) announced that the police would investigate up to 10 members of Parliament on suspicion of fomenting violence and unrest.
Then came his now-familiar pattern of verbal feints and jabs.
"There is one big fish," he said on Saturday, "but we haven't found the supporting evidence yet. Once we catch him it will all be over."
[etc., clip]