Indonesia, 2001 — auto-coup attempt

Event Summary

On 23 July 2001 President Abdurrahman Wahid of Indonesia attempted a desperate self coup, issuing a decree that purported to dissolve the national parliament and the People's Consultative Assembly and to call fresh elections, in a last ditch bid to save his crumbling presidency, only to be swiftly removed instead. Wahid, a nearly blind Muslim cleric who had become Indonesia's first democratically elected president in 1999 after the fall of Suharto, had governed erratically and lost the confidence of the political establishment amid corruption allegations and clashes with the legislature. As the assembly moved to impeach him, Wahid issued his emergency decree in the early hours of 23 July, declaring a state of emergency and ordering the dissolution of parliament.

But the decree was ignored: the military refused to enforce it, the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional, and the People's Consultative Assembly responded within hours by voting to impeach and remove Wahid, installing his vice president, Megawati Sukarnoputri, as president. Wahid's self coup collapsed instantly and backfired completely; he was ousted, though the crisis passed without bloodshed, a notable moment of resilience for Indonesia's young democracy.