Megawati's personal struggle comes full circle<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The personal struggle of Megawati Soekarnoputri
\nhas come full circle, with her appointment as Indonesia's vice
\npresident. It was not the coveted presidency, but it will do, at
\nleast for the moment.<\/p>\n
From now on, she is virtually her own person.<\/p>\n
She can no longer count on the greatness of her late father,
\nIndonesia's founding president Sukarno, the way she did in the
\nearly years of her political career. Nor can she simply rely on
\nthe sympathy of her supporters to prop up her popularity.<\/p>\n
With her also at the helm, rather than at the wrong end of the
\nstick where she had been all these years, \"struggle\" will have to
\ntake on a new meaning for her.<\/p>\n
There is no doubt that her stature has grown these past few
\nyears as she symbolized the people's suffering and their struggle
\nagainst tyranny and repression.<\/p>\n
With her father's name of Sukarno, Perjuangan (struggle) has
\nbecame her adopted middle name. It was this name which she gave
\nto her party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI
\nPerjuangan), this year.<\/p>\n
Now as vice president, she has the chance to prove that she is
\nworthy of the first two syllables of her name -- Mega -- and that
\nshe does not live in the shadow of her father.<\/p>\n
Born in Jakarta on Jan. 23, 1947, Dyah Permata Megawati
\nSetyawati Soekarnoputri plunged into a political career late in
\nlife.<\/p>\n
She joined the government-controlled PDI in 1987, defying a
\nfamily consensus that all Sukarno's offspring should stay out of
\nparty politics. The rationale was that, as the nation's founding
\nfather, Sukarno belonged to all Indonesians and should not be
\nmonopolized by one political party.<\/p>\n
A virtual political novice, some even dubbed her \"a simple
\nhousewife\", most people saw that the only thing Megawati had
\ngoing for her at the time was her father's name. Few people
\nbelieved then that she had the staying power, let alone the
\nability, to mount a serious challenge to the national leadership.<\/p>\n
Her joining of PDI in 1987 evoked positive sentiments, not
\nonly among Sukarno's die-hard supporters, but particularly among
\nfirst-time voters who were too young to recall the man who died
\nin 1971, of official but not popular disgrace.<\/p>\n
Megawati and her husband were duly rewarded by the PDI
\nleadership with seats in the House of Representatives in 1987 for
\nhelping the party's election campaign.<\/p>\n
Little is known about her life prior to her entry into
\npolitics. The few details that are available show that the mother
\nof three also had to struggle in her personal life.<\/p>\n
In his autobiography Sukarno said his wife Fatmawati gave
\nbirth to Megawati during the difficult period of the independence
\nstruggle when his family was constantly on the run and in hiding.<\/p>\n
\"It was thundering. My wife lay in the bedroom which had been
\nfitted out specially as a hospital. Suddenly the lights went out,
\nthe roof caved in, the dark, swollen clouds opened and water
\nrained in like a river,\" Sukarno wrote.<\/p>\n
\"The doctor and the sisters carried Fatmawati into her own
\nsleeping room. She was soaked, as were the instruments,
\nbedclothes, everything. In the darkness, by the light of a
\ncandle, our daughter was born. We named her Megawati. Mega means
\nclouds.\"<\/p>\n
Megawati spent her childhood at Merdeka Palace. She went to
\nPadjadjaran University in Bandung to study agriculture, but
\ndropped out in 1967 to be with her father after he had been
\nousted and sent to live in internment.<\/p>\n
In 1970, she went to the University of Indonesia to study
\npsychology but dropped out after only two years.<\/p>\n
She has had her fair share of misfortune in her personal life.
\nHer first husband, First Lt. Surindo Supjarso was killed in an
\nairplane crash in Irian Jaya in 1970.<\/p>\n
In 1972, she married Hassan Gamal Ahmad Hasan, an Egyptian
\ndiplomat posted in Jakarta. The marriage was annulled --
\nreportedly before it was consummated -- two weeks later when it
\nbecame known that there was never any official declaration that
\nher first husband had died.<\/p>\n
That official declaration came through in 1973, but by then
\nthe Egyptian diplomat had returned to his country.<\/p>\n
She married Taufik Kiemas, her present husband, in 1973.<\/p>\n
The entry of Megawati and the \"return of Sukarno's ghost\" --
\nas the 1987 PDI election campaign was aptly described by the
\nmedia -- surprised many, particularly the government.<\/p>\n
In retrospect, it was a political miscalculation on the part
\nof the Soeharto regime to allow the Sukarnoism revival. It was a
\nmistake that led to even more mistakes as the government tried
\ndesperately to stop, at all costs, the trend of Sukarno's growing
\npopularity, and with it Megawati's own rise to fame.<\/p>\n
The campaign against Sukarnoism began in 1992, when the
\ngovernment banned PDI from using pictures of Sukarno in election
\ncampaigns. But Megawati remained the biggest drawing card at
\nPDI's colorful election rallies.<\/p>\n
In the election, PDI still came third and last, but it
\nsignificantly raised its standing, at the expense of the dominant
\npolitical group Golkar.<\/p>\n
The writing was already on the wall for Soeharto and Golkar
\nthen, that unless something was done, Megawati and PDI would
\nbecome a serious challenger in the 1997 election and the 1998
\npresidential poll.<\/p>\n
In 1993, the government and military intervened in PDI's
\nchairmanship election when it became apparent that Megawati was
\ngoing to win. As a result, two PDI congresses ended violently and
\ninconclusively. But at a third attempt that same year, the
\nundercurrent was too strong for the government, and it finally
\nagreed to allow Megawati's election.<\/p>\n
The harassment against Megawati resumed in 1996 when the
\ngovernment and the military jointly conspired to remove her from
\nthe party's leadership. They sponsored a breakaway group to
\norganize a congress that overthrew her.<\/p>\n
That ironically was a major turning point in Megawati's
\npolitical career. Many people outside PDI rallied behind her; her
\nsupport and popularity rippled out well beyond the party's
\nboundaries.<\/p>\n
She became a symbol that many people, particularly the poor,
\nidentified with. Like them, she was a victim of endless
\ngovernment repression; like them, she was almost helpless in
\nfacing government wrath; and like them, she simply accepted one
\nabuse after another.<\/p>\n
Yet, with every additional blow, her stature grew. She became
\na figure to rally around for people clamoring for change and
\ndemocracy in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
The government's harassment was targeted mostly at her
\nsupporters and the symbols she represented, including at one time
\na renewed character assassination campaign against her father's
\nreputation.<\/p>\n
In July 1996, the government helped the breakaway PDI camp to
\nforcibly take over the party's headquarters. The incident turned
\ninto a riot which the military quickly blamed on Megawati and her
\nsupporters.<\/p>\n
In 1997, the government barred Megawati's PDI from taking part
\nin the general election.<\/p>\n
Her calm response to these systematic acts of harassment was
\noften a source of frustration for her supporters and close aides.<\/p>\n
She continued to exercise restraint and avoid direct
\nconfrontation with the government. She always insisted on
\npursuing legal channels, even as she herself knew that the courts
\nof law were already in the government's pocket.<\/p>\n
Megawati's fighting spirit has helped her overcome the various
\nobstacles put in the way of her political career. Her calm
\nresponse has also won her support. She increased her support from
\nonly \"victims of oppression\" to include the elite middle class,
\nand lately hordes of former military officers.<\/p>\n
The downfall of the Soeharto regime in May 1998 allowed her to
\nconsolidate her political power. She formed her own party, built
\naround her loyal supporters who stayed with her through the
\ndifficult years. At a congress in Bali this year, she coined the
\nnew party name, PDI Perjuangan, to differentiate it from the
\ngovernment-backed party.<\/p>\n
PDI Perjuangan garnered the most votes in the general election
\nin June, but with 35 percent of the tally of the vote it was not
\nenough to clinch her the coveted presidency.<\/p>\n
Even with the election victory, she continued to be the target
\nof abuse by her detractors, some questioning her commitment to
\nIslam, and others doubting her because of her gender.<\/p>\n
Her silence on many political issues in recent months made her
\nprone to attacks. Her failure to take the initiative, including
\napproaching other reform leaders, was blamed for her defeat in
\nthe presidential election by Abdurrahman Wahid.<\/p>\n
Now as vice president, the time has come for her adopt a new
\nstyle of leadership. If, in the past, her popularity had been
\nmore to do with her name and the outpouring of public sympathy
\nfor the bad treatment she received from the government, she will
\nnow have to prove herself through her own deeds.<\/p>\n
She has ended one form of struggle, but another and perhaps
\nmore difficult one lies ahead of her. (emb)<\/p>",
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