Megawati's political views<\/p>\n
By Angus McIntyre<\/p>\n
The following article by Angus McIntyre is based on presentations
\nat a conference of the Indonesia Council of the Asian Studies
\nAssociation of Australia at the University of Melbourne on July
\n11, and at the Mini-Update Conference of the Indonesian Institute
\nof Sciences on July 26 in Jakarta. The writer is senior lecturer
\nin politics at La Trobe University in Melbourne.<\/p>\n
MELBOURNE (JP): We hear much speculation about Megawati's
\nbehavior and politics. I would like to begin with her habit of
\nremoving herself from the realm of political criticism and attack
\nby presenting an agreeable exterior to the world while
\ncultivating her inner strength. The evidence for this
\ncharacteristic comes from some remarks she made at the end of
\nOctober 1998 just after a Muslim politician, A.M. Saefuddin, had
\nclaimed that she was a Hindu and that the next president of
\nIndonesia must be a Muslim male.<\/p>\n
Last Oct. 29 Media Indonesia Online reported: \"In front of
\ncadres, sympathizers and members of the Indonesian Democratic
\nParty of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) yesterday, Megawati said that
\nwhoever tries to attack and discredit her personally will be
\nfaced with a smile because that is the best way in politics.
\nBeforehand she also expressed the hope that PDI members would not
\nreact. \"Why must we react. Just let it be. What is important is
\nthat we continue to cultivate our inner beings, she stressed.\"<\/p>\n
It is evident from this quote that Megawati has elevated this
\nway of dealing with adverse experiences into a principle and
\nurged it upon her followers. Indeed, she even urged something
\nlike it upon the soldiers from the much criticized Special Forces
\n(Kopassus) whom she visited in late September 2000. She told
\nthem, as quoted by this newspaper: \"You should rebuild your self-
\nconfidence and improve your professionalism as part of the effort
\nto improve the image of Kopassus. Self-confidence is not
\ninspired by other people, but it emanates from deep down in your
\nhearts.<\/p>\n
This manner of behavior -- adapting to a difficult world while
\nworking on one's inner resources -- which she has recommended
\nboth to her followers and to members of Kopassus also appears to
\nunderpin her vision for Indonesia. Writing for the Yomiuri Daily
\nof July 22, 1999, she said: \"I always tell myself how lucky
\nJapan is to have had in its history the Meiji Restoration, which
\nallowed Japan to step into the modern era with its culture and
\ntraditions intact. This is what makes me jealous and forces me
\nto question myself, deep within my own heart -- how to make
\nIndonesia a modern and developed society without losing the
\nspirit of its own very deep and unique cultural identity. To
\nachieve this is my dream.\"<\/p>\n
This conservative vision of modernizing Indonesia while
\npreserving its highly valued, traditional culture is consistent
\nwith what one might call Megawati's populist political outlook;
\nand nowhere was the latter more evident than in her opening
\nspeech at the Sanur Congress of the Indonesian Democracy Party
\n(PDI) on Oct. 8, 1998.<\/p>\n
There she spoke of her party not as a vehicle for the
\nrepresentation of diverse groups and interests within the
\ncommunity but as an instrument of her leadership of the
\nIndonesian People (always with a capital whom she regarded as a
\nsingle entity which speaks, or should speak, with only one voice,
\nand which willingly acknowledges her as its leader). In some of
\nher remarks it was possible to hear not only the strains of
\npopulism but also an echo of her father's voice: \"Listen to the
\nvoice of the People, feel the heart beat of the People, give
\nvoice to the aspiration of the People, and side with the People.
\nBecause the voice of the People bears a message\".<\/p>\n
Most populist leaders have, of course, been males (her father
\nfor one), and it is interesting to see her approach leadership
\ndifferently, replacing the pride and rage of her male predecessor
\nwith a proclaimed maternal love. For example, she addressed
\nherself to the people of Aceh in the following terms in her
\nspeech of July 29, 1999:<\/p>\n
\"Especially to my brothers and sisters in Aceh, I say, 'Be
\npatient'. Later when your Female Leader (Megawati uses the
\nAcehnese term 'Cut' here) is running this country, she will not
\nallow one drop of blood to be spilled of the people whose
\nachievements were so great in the struggle for Indonesian
\nindependence. To you I will give my love, I will distribute the
\nproceeds from your Arun [Liquid Natural Gas Refinery] so that the
\npeople can relish the beauty enjoyed by the Verandah of Mecca as
\na consequence of it being developed with love and responsibility
\nby fellow Indonesian citizens\".<\/p>\n
But we also recognize in these remarks the authoritarianism
\nthat tends to go hand in hand with populism in her emphasis on a
\npersonal style of leadership in which her word is considered
\nsufficient guarantee of her steadfastness of purpose.<\/p>\n
In light of this populism and authoritarianism, it is puzzling
\nto find that Megawati has also shown a strong commitment to the
\nrule of law. However, this phenomenon can be explained by her
\nrecent history. If her conservative, Meiji-like vision for
\nIndonesia and her populism have roots in her past and her
\npersonality (specifically in identification with her father),
\nthen her commitment to the rule of law has its origins in the
\nrough treatment she received at the hands of second president
\nSoeharto in the mid-1990s.<\/p>\n
Perhaps support for the rule of law had enjoyed a rudimentary
\nexistence in her mind for many years but it only crystallized
\ninto a firm and brave commitment in 1996 as a consequence of both
\nher ejection by Soeharto from the PDI leadership in May 1996 and
\nthe subsequent, murderous attack on her party headquarters by
\ngovernment thugs on July 27 of the same year. Ignoring the advice
\nof those who advised her to lie low, she immediately challenged
\nthe legality of the Soeharto government's behavior, employing a
\nveritable army of lawyers in the process -- with her so-called
\n\"Team for the Defense of Indonesian Democracy\" -- and she never
\nmissed an opportunity thereafter to affirm strongly her belief in
\nthe rule of law, or negara hukum.<\/p>\n
By 1999 it seems that Megawati had come to the view that the
\nnegara hukum depends for its very existence on a separation of
\npowers, a view that she then tried to reconcile with her father's
\nhostility to Montesquieu's trias politika. She said in a speech
\nin Singapore in mid-March 1999: \"Although Indonesia does not
\nadhere to Montesquieu's Trias Politika system, the PDI Perjuangan
\nstill holds strongly to the position that there must be a clear
\nand transparent division between the legislative, judicial and
\nexecutive powers and that this must be applied to our future
\npolitical system.\"<\/p>\n
The remark is somewhat contradictory but at least one may
\nobserve the daughter trying to shed an unedifying aspect of her
\nfather's legacy (Indonesia has rued the day first president
\nSukarno made the chairman of the Supreme Court a member of his
\ncabinet).<\/p>\n
We have the interesting phenomenon, then, of a leader,
\nconservative, populist and authoritarian by dint of her
\nbackground, being propelled in the direction of the rule of law
\nand the separation of powers by her experience as a victim of the
\narbitrary actions of the Soeharto regime.<\/p>\n
Thus it is that Megawati is particular about the rule of law
\nin Indonesia even as she thinks of the Indonesian people more in
\nterms of their collective uniqueness than their individual
\ndiversity. In benign circumstances, it is likely that these
\ncontrary elements in her political thinking will continue to
\ncoexist. But the difficult circumstances in which the Republic
\nof Indonesia finds itself today, with its territorial integrity
\nthreatened by separatist movements in Aceh and Papua, may tip the
\nbalance in favor of her authoritarian side, in favor that is of
\npreserving the collective uniqueness of the Indonesian people by
\nforce.<\/p>\n
The first casualty of such a step would, of course, be the
\nrule of law or the negara hukum -- and, as there is no situation
\nof local conflict in Indonesia that cannot be made infinitely
\nworse by the introduction of its military, the second may very
\nwell be the unitary state (negara kesatuan) itself.<\/p>",
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