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News	Indonesian's Fate May Rest in Hands of Vice President JAKARTA, Indonesia, Feb. 2 -- In a speech last summer, Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid compared his relationship with Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri to that of an "older brother and younger sister." They squabbled. He playfully taunted her. And they patched up their differences. But in recent months, the sibling rivalry has grown increasingly bitter. He largely reneged on a pledge to give her more responsibility for day-to-day government operations. He has joked about her relationship with her husband, suggesting to large groups of visitors that she was having extramarital affairs. And, in the past week, political sources said he threatened to launch an investigation into what he alleged were corrupt business dealings by her family. On Thursday, the usually aloof and taciturn Megawati fired back with a potentially debilitating blow. She authorized her political party, which has the largest number of seats in parliament, to vote to censure Wahid for his alleged involvement in two corruption scandals. The humiliating rebuke has initiated a months-long process that could culminate in a vote by the country's top legislative body to remove Wahid. Although Wahid insisted today that he had done nothing wrong and would not resign, politicians and analysts said his survival depended largely on his vice president and her party, whose support he needs to fend off impeachment calls from other parliamentary factions. "The presidency is in her hands," said Andi Mallarangeng, a political analyst in Jakarta. "She has the power now." Megawati, who lost the presidency to the politically wily Wahid even though her party received far more votes than Wahid's in elections 15 months ago, has said little in public about the political crisis. She has not called for Wahid to step down nor indicated a desire to replace him. But people close to Megawati say she is increasingly convinced that Wahid should leave office. She is undecided, however, about how and when that should occur. On Thursday, she stopped short of calling for an emergency session of the country's top legislative body, the People's Consultative Assembly, to begin immediate impeachment proceedings, favoring instead a drawn-out process that gives Wahid 90 days to respond to parliament and an additional month for a second response before the assembly is convened. Several of the president's opponents have urged Megawati to support an emergency session, arguing that the country, which is struggling with a raft of economic and social problems, can ill afford months of political gridlock. Wahid's opponents also have voiced concern that he may seek to dissolve parliament and use the armed forces to prevent his removal. This week, Wahid urged army commanders to declare a military state of emergency, but they refused, according to two high-level political sources. That request, news of which rippled through the ranks this week, has all but eliminated support for the president among the armed forces, the sources said. Wahid also indicated a desire to "freeze" parliament, according to a report of the president's comments to a group of Islamic academics on Sunday that was carried by the government-run Antara news service. Antara withdrew the report after a government official said Wahid's comments were intended to be off the record. "He appears to be grasping for dictatorial tactics to stay in power," said a legislator in Megawati's party. "This is very dangerous for Indonesia." At a brief news conference today, Wahid dismissed speculation that he planned to dissolve parliament and fire generals who refused to obey his orders, saying his opponents were spreading rumors as part of a "psychological war." People close to Megawati said today that the vice president has become increasingly worried that the president will resort to desperate measures to stay in office. Still, they said, she remains wary of pushing for immediate impeachment proceedings because she fears that if Wahid is ousted, it would set a precedent that could be used against her. Advisers also worry about Megawati's ability to work with conservative Islamic parties, which have voiced reservations about having a female president lead the world's most populous Muslim country. History, too, is playing a role in her thinking. Her father, Sukarno, the first president of Indonesia, was ousted in a military coup in 1965. "She doesn't want to take over by forcing Wahid out," said one adviser. "She does not want to be seen as plotting his downfall. She wants him to fall and then to take over for the good of the nation." Megawati's party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, controls more than 30 percent of the seats in parliament, while Wahid's party has only 11 percent. The support of her party along with the former governing Golkar party were crucial to Wahid's ascension to the presidency. Golkar members also supported the censure. "Wahid has totally misplayed his role with her," said a senior diplomat here. "She supported him, but he has humiliated her and raised implicit threats of blackmail. . . . Now she has become the power center and he has become increasingly weak and unable to govern." The move to censure Wahid came after a legislative commission issued a report saying that Wahid was probably involved in the theft of $4.1 million from the government's food-distribution agency by people who claimed to be acting on his behalf, including his personal masseur. The report also accused the president of failing to declare a $2 million gift from the sultan of Brunei. Wahid insisted today that the commission's report was "not based on facts." Megawati, 54, draws her support from students and lower-class urban residents who have been attracted to her calls for political reform and her opposition to former dictator Suharto. Since becoming vice president, however, she has assumed a low profile, rarely speaking to the media or immersing herself in detailed policy debates. 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FIFA 2001 Major League Soccer
In a general sense, in the long, venerable life of Electronic Arts' FIFA series, each new version of the game looks and plays a little bit better each year, with a few odd years missing the boat here and there. But with the introduction of Sony's PlayStation 2, EA truly has been able to capitalize in full on the things it's worked so hard on doing each year -- improving AI, creating more realistic looking players and improving their animations, and creating a sense of depth, play balance, and realism. Believe it or not, the PS2, or EA's early understanding of the PS2, has helped its soccer development team to realize the game's potential more than ever before. With this game, more polygons onscreen doesn't necessarily only mean "more of everything." With FIFA 2001, the game not only looks better because of more polygons, but it animates better, it's more realistic, and it flows very closely along the lines of reality to persuade and entrance our eyes, and therefore, our minds, into believing its fluid lifelike existence. Like a well-orchestrated concerto, EA's FIFA has come together better than ever before, and just like Madden NFL 2001 was to the sport of football, FIFA 2001 has become to the sport of soccer -- the best soccer of its kind on any system.

 

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