If Megawati is president

If Megawati is president

From D&R

If Megawati becomes Indonesia's fourth president, her
leadership may hit a major stumbling block due to her limited
capabilities and the conflicts of interest of those around her.
They are interrelated. Owing to her limited capabilities, she
will not be able to properly manage the conflicts within her
party. In the meantime, conflicts of interest of her party's
personnel have become more acute following her rise to the peak
of power. As a result, turmoil will ensue and Megawati, as the
new president, will not be able to consolidate her administration
to take it to a more productive stage.

Ultimately, the leadership of Megawati Soekarnoputri will be
brief and the people will confront uncertainty again. Political
stability and the like will be seriously disrupted and disturbed.

Why have conflicts of interest become more acute when Megawati
is on the brink of power? Well, simply because the party
personnel around her come from different backgrounds and pursue
their own interests. Some of them are from Golkar, like Theo
Syafei and Jacob Tobing, for example. These people clearly tend
to seize back the power they once had while still in Golkar. They
will resort to anything and are even ready to fool the people,
which Jacob Tobing did in the case of his radiogram about the
pooling of fringe votes.

Megawati has in fact realized that she has been made a puppet
by the people around her. Once she even hesitated to move
forward. Yet those around her have kept on pushing her to move
forward. Even Benny Moerdani has given Megawati her support.

Moerdani himself played a significant role in catapulting
Megawati to the top position of the Indonesian Democratic Party
(PDI), which was then undergoing a leadership crisis as the
Soeharto administration was trying to prevent Soerjadi from being
elected PDI chairman again.

At that time the Soeharto administration considered Soerjadi
as having deviated from the course charted by the government and
needed to be removed from his position. When PDI was in this deep
leadership confusion, Benny Moerdani and his comrades-in-arms
were all too willing to fork out billions of rupiah to make
Megawati a new chairwoman of the PDI. Thanks to this huge amount
of money, support within the party could be bought in favor of
Megawati. So, Moerdani and his company were successful.

Now, when Megawati is a little hesitant to move forward toward
the presidential position, Moerdani has again appeared to give
her his moral and other support. Benny Moerdani is really a true
friend to Megawati. A friend in need is a friend indeed.

AGUS KUSAENI

Tasikmalaya, West Java