Children of Sukarno fight for votes

Children of Sukarno fight for votes

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The youngest of Sukarno's children from his third wife
Fatmawati, Guruh Soekarnoputra, expressed his pain over the open
rift between her three sisters, especially between incumbent
President Megawati Soekarnoputri and Rachmawati Soekarnoputri.

Guruh, a choreographer and composer, said he had desperately
tried to persuade them to put aside their differences and told
them that they should be nicer to each other, at least in public,
as the children of the country's first president.

"Every time I meet them, I always say please be nice with one
another. I always play the mediator because I am the only one who
can talk to all three of them," he said over the weekend.

Guruh is a House of Representatives member representing
Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

Rachmawati, who is calling herself the ideological daughter of
Sukarno -- while calling Megawati a biological daughter --
routinely criticizes the President for her inability to lead the
country. She has also repeatedly accused Megawati of failing to
keeping to their father's nationalist and marhaenisme ideology,
which promotes the virtues of the "little people".

Her public statements give an impression that Rachmawati
believes herself more deserving of the presidency than her older
sister Megawati.

Another daughter, Sukmawati Soekarnoputri, chairs the
Marhaenisme Indonesian National Party (PNI Marhaenisme) and has a
relatively good relationship with Megawati, with whom she meets
frequently. As with her two sisters, Sukmawati also insists she
is a true nationalist who fights for the poor.

The three siblings are vying against each other in the April 5
legislative election. Trying to lure voters from Megawati's bulk
of supporters, the two younger sisters claim themselves the
rightful heirs to Sukarno's ideological legacy.

Guruh said none of his sisters were ready to compromise,
especially Rachmawati.

"It is regrettable that they refuse to stay together, but
differing opinions are a common thing in our family," he said.

It appears Megawati was the first to sow discord among the
sisters. In 1986, then-president Soeharto allowed the Indonesian
Democratic Party (PDI) to recruit Sukarno's daughters to the
party, although Soeharto strongly opposed a plan to recruit
eldest son Guntur Soekarnoputra. Only Megawati responded to the
offer.

In 1987 she was elected to the House and six years later, she
was elected as PDI chairperson. In 1996, Soeharto ousted Megawati
from the party, realizing that she had become a real political
threat to him. The PDI-P, which was set up by Megawati and her
followers as a separate party, won the majority votes in the 1999
general election, one year after Soeharto's downfall. The same
year, she became vice president in the administration of
Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid.

Two years later, Megawati rose to the presidential seat after
Gus Dur was impeached.

The question remains whether Sukarno is still a selling point
for Rachmawati and Sukmawati.

Unlike the 1999 election, Sukarno's pictures are no longer hot
promotional tools for a campaign.

"The one thing they neglected is the fact that the public
consider Sukarno a great name of the past, but is no longer an
image they look to now," political observer Cornelis Lay, a
member of Megawati's think tank, told The Jakarta Post on
Tuesday.

Sukarno's picture does not appear even in PDI-P campaigns, he
said, which proved that the people had moved beyond the
remembrance of the country's founding father.

Cornelis said it was obvious that the three Sukarnos were
playing "on the same field".

"But Megawati, who has been in politics since the 1980s,
remains the clear front runner," he added.