A president-in-waiting<\/p>\n
Megawati Soekarnoputri is looking more and more like the
\npresident-in-waiting today than she ever has before, since
\nbecoming vice president in October 1999. Under the nation's laws,
\nthe vice president will step into the number one job if something
\nhappens to the serving president. With President Abdurrahman
\nWahid facing mounting pressure to go one way or the other, many
\npeople here and abroad are already analyzing the prospect of
\nMegawati becoming Indonesia's next ruler.<\/p>\n
She has certainly been getting a lot of support where it
\ncounts most, including from her former detractors, who in 1999
\nconspired to deprive her of the presidency. The strongest message
\nof support came on Friday when leaders of all major political
\nparties met in Jakarta's Al Azhar grand mosque to discuss the
\nlikelihood of her ascendancy to power in the not too distant
\nfuture.<\/p>\n
\"The people of this nation should prepare themselves to face
\nanother change of national leadership,\" People's Consultative
\nAssembly chairman Amien Rais said after the meeting, which was
\nalso attended by leaders of Megawati's own Indonesian Democratic
\nParty of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), Golkar, the United
\nDevelopment Party (PPP), the Justice Party (PK), the Crescent
\nStar Party (PBB) and Amien's own National Mandate Party (PAN).<\/p>\n
Amien, as we may recall, led the campaign in 1999 that
\nprevented Megawati from becoming the president, despite having
\nwon the general election with 35 percent of the vote, and secured
\nthe election of Abdurrahman, whose own National Awakening Party
\n(PKB) only won 11 percent of votes in the elections.<\/p>\n
The chief objection to Megawati becoming president at the time
\nwas because they argued that Indonesia was not ready for a female
\npresident. Things have obviously changed a lot since then for
\nAmien and his friends, who are now leading the campaign to oust
\nGus Dur, to endorse her presidency today.<\/p>\n
More important to the question of her likely ascension to
\npower is her own position. For months, many people, even those
\nfrom within her own PDI Perjuangan, have had to second-guess her
\nposition or intentions with regard to the presidency.<\/p>\n
She, for example, allowed PDI Perjuangan to take the lead in
\nthe House of Representatives inquiry into allegations of
\nimpropriety by Gus Dur. But she was also the one who restrained
\nthe party, and hence the House where hers is the largest faction,
\nfrom being too severe on the President.<\/p>\n
She played an active behind-the-scenes role in ensuring that
\nthe memorandum issued by the House last month was decisive in
\nreproaching the President but, at the same time, not too
\naggressive, allowing him some leeway to respond with dignity.
\nOther factions, and some leading members of her PDI Perjuangan,
\nhad wanted to be harsher on the President.<\/p>\n
A woman of few words, Megawati has had the unenviable task of
\nthreading between her duty of remaining loyal to President
\nAbdurrahman, and her obligations as chairwoman of the country's
\nlargest political party. She continued to play second fiddle and
\nnever once publicly uttered contemptuous statements against him,
\neven while the latter was struggling for political survival.<\/p>\n
A decisive moment arrived last week when Megawati publicly
\ndistanced herself from the embattled Abdurrahman in a statement
\nattributed to her by an executive of Muhammadiyah. The statement
\nwas circumspect, stating that, in her capacity as PDI Perjuangan
\nchairwoman, neither she nor her party had supported Abdurrahman
\nas president, but that as vice president, she was obliged to
\nremain loyal to the elected president.<\/p>\n
This statement was also the first clearest sign from Megawati
\nthat she is now ready to abandon President Abdurrahman. Other
\npolitical leaders, including Amien Rais, took this as a sign that
\nshe was ready to assume the presidency.<\/p>\n
The two most frequently asked questions about Megawati's
\npresidential adequacy had been whether she was ready for it, and
\nwhether she had the capacity undertake the role. At least, the
\nfirst question has now been settled, but the second is something
\nthat the nation will have to wait and see.<\/p>\n
The message that Megawati conveyed to President Abdurrahman
\nlast week was that he could no longer take her loyalty and
\nsupport for granted the way he has being doing these last few
\nweeks. Because his own PKB has little support beyond its home
\nbase in East Java, Megawati's support, and automatically that of
\nher PDI Perjuangan, is crucial if he is to have any chance of
\nsurviving the political storm at all.<\/p>\n
Gus Dur's fate is very much in the hands of Megawati. The next
\nfew days or weeks will be a very crucial period for her as much
\nas it is for him. By whatever befalls him, she will be affected.<\/p>\n
Yet, the ball is very much in her court now. How she uses this
\npower will be decisive in determining the fate of this country
\nand its people. This is a momentous time for her to show
\n\"states(wo)manship\" and wisdom. How she uses this power will also
\ndetermine what kind of president she will be should she move into
\nthe palace.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/a-president-in-waiting-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}