Megawati believes many cadres ready for presidency<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): First president Sukarno's eldest daughter
\nMegawati Soekarnoputri said yesterday that it was a myth that no
\ncandidate other than incumbent Soeharto is eligible to stand for
\nthe presidency.<\/p>\n
Megawati said she believed that a number of state leadership
\ncadres would be ready to fill the vacancy if President Soeharto
\nwas not reelected next year.<\/p>\n
"I believe that he (Soeharto) must have long prepared his
\ncadres for presidency," she said in a rare interview with local
\njournalists at her home in the Kebagusan subdistrict, South
\nJakarta.<\/p>\n
The ousted leader of the Indonesian Democratic Party was
\ncommenting on the dominant political organization Golkar's
\nresolute decision to renominate Soeharto in next year's
\npresidential election.<\/p>\n
Megawati said she remembered the day in 1963, when at the age
\nof 16, she asked her father: "Is there really no one else for the
\npresidency?"<\/p>\n
Conversation<\/p>\n
The conversation took place a few days before a general
\nmeeting of the Provisional People's Consultative Assembly (MPRS)
\nin May 1963. Sukarno asked her opinion of the assembly's plan to
\ndeclare him as the country's lifelong president.<\/p>\n
She said her father was surprised by her question and
\nimmediately asked her why she had asked that.<\/p>\n
"I reminded him of his prior remarks that he had prepared some
\nof his cadres to replace him one day," she said.<\/p>\n
"I might say the wrong thing in your opinion," she recalled
\nsaying. "But shouldn't you let your cadres go to the top and
\nreplace you, regardless of whether you like it or not?"<\/p>\n
Her father replied: "How dare you say such a thing. It was the
\npeople who wanted me to be their lifelong president."<\/p>\n
Megawati, lauded as one of the country's prodemocracy figures,
\nthen told her father that he was no longer fit for presidency.<\/p>\n
"I told him that he was old already and needed to spend time
\nwith his family -- the only thing he had missed out on in his
\npast life," she said.<\/p>\n
She told her father that his health was deteriorating.<\/p>\n
"What will happen to the Republic if suddenly you cannot
\ncontinue your service and have to resign within your term of
\noffice?" she asked her father.<\/p>\n
"Yes, you're right," Sukarno eventually said. He was 62 years
\nold at the time and had chronic kidney failure.<\/p>\n
However, Sukarno did not follow his daughter's advice.<\/p>\n
Honor<\/p>\n
Later that year he accepted the honor of lifelong president
\nfrom the MPRS.<\/p>\n
Sukarno was replaced by Soeharto in an extraordinary meeting
\nof the MPRS four years later when he was declared no longer
\ncapable of continuing his term after an abortive coup attempt by
\nthe subsequently outlawed Indonesian Communist Party in 1965.<\/p>\n
Despite Soeharto's call Sunday that Golkar should reconfirm
\nits decision with its supporters, chairman Harmoko said Monday
\nthat Golkar would stick to its prior statement that it had only
\none name for the presidency, Muhammad Soeharto (Soeharto's
\ncomplete name).<\/p>\n
Members of the 1,000-strong People's Consultative Assembly
\nwill convene next March to elect a president and vice president
\nand endorse the 1998\/2003 State Policy Guidelines. (imn)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/megawati-believes-many-cadres-ready-for-presidency-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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