Mega fulfills her destiny

JAKARTA (JP): Many believe that the events which transpired on Monday and saw Megawati Soekarnoputri appointed as president was destiny.

After the general election in 1999, many had assumed she would become president as her party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), gathered the most votes in what was deemed the most democratic poll in the country in 44 years.

But the political twist, and probably a lack of political guile from her party, that transpired handed her a different fate as she was defeated by Abdurrahman Wahid during the pivotal presidential vote at the People's Consultative Assembly.

But things have come full circle and the people who voted against her in 1999 are the very same people now propelling her to the presidency.

While in the past she openly coveted the top job in government, during her time with Abdurrahman she played a faithful role as deputy.

She did not openly defy Abdurrahman whom she considered a brother, and was always careful not to directly contradict him.

It was only in the last few weeks of Abdurrahman's presidency that she began to subtly make public hints of her belief that a presidential transition should be pursued.

Even then she stressed that any transition of power should be conducted in strict accordance to constitutional procedures.

Her ascendance means Indonesia joins the ranks of countries, such as India, the Philippines, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the United States, which have experienced a mini dynasty of having both a parent and child lead the country.

Her views are not dissimilar from her father's. As vice president, she upheld her father's fundamental beliefs by frowning upon regional autonomy, which she believes has garnered a sense of regional chauvinism rather than national unity.

Megawati, as she underlined again in her inauguration speech, is likely to be a staunch bulwark of the concept of a unitary state, and probably less sympathetic to separatist tendencies than her predecessor.

How far the name of her famous father will carry her following the "honeymoon period" of the new government will be the litmus test to her presidency.

But those who would too easily dismiss her as an icon should not forget that underneath her projected aura as a mother to her followers, her determination has been tried and tempered through years of harsh struggle during the New Order regime.

Born in Jakarta on Jan. 23, 1947, Dyah Permata Megawati Setyawati Soekarnoputri embarked on her political career at a later age.

She only joined the then government-controlled Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) in 1987, defying the family consensus at the time that Sukarno's offspring should stay away from politics.

Many initially called her "a simple housewife" with the longstanding Sukarno name as her only bedrock.

But her role in the party evoked positive sentiments, particularly among first-time voters who were too young to remember Sukarno, who died as a result of official but not popular disgrace in 1971.

Megawati and her husband Taufik Kiemas were presented seats in the House of Representatives in 1987 for helping the party's election campaign.

Little is known about her life prior to her entry into politics. The few details that are available show that the mother of three also had to struggle in her personal life.

Megawati spent her childhood at Merdeka Palace. She went to Padjadjaran University in Bandung to study agriculture, but dropped out in 1967 to be with her father after he had been ousted and sent to live under house arrest.

In 1970, she went to the University of Indonesia to study psychology but dropped out after only two years.

She has had her fair share of misfortune in her personal life. Her first husband, First Lt. Surindo Supjarso, was killed in an airplane crash in Irian Jaya in 1970.

In 1972, she married Hassan Gamal Ahmad Hasan, an Egyptian diplomat posted in Jakarta. The marriage was annulled -- reportedly before it was consummated -- two weeks later when it became known that there had not been any official declaration of her first husband's death.

That official declaration came through in 1973, but by then the Egyptian diplomat had returned to his country.

She married Taufik Kiemas, her present husband, in 1973.

Megawati's political rise hit top gear in the 1990s as the government intervened in PDI's chairmanship election when it became apparent that Megawati was going to win. Despite previous attempts to undermine her, Megawati won the party chair.

Harassment against Megawati resumed in 1996 when the government again tried to remove her from the party's leadership. They sponsored a breakaway group to organize a congress that overthrew her.

It became a turning point in Megawati's political career. Many people outside PDI rallied behind her and she became a symbol of struggle against Soeharto's authoritarian regime.

In 1997, the government barred Megawati's PDI from taking part in the general election.

The downfall of the Soeharto regime in May 1998 allowed her to consolidate her political power.

Under her leadership, PDI Perjuangan garnered 35 percent of the tally in the 1999 polls.

As proven throughout her career, her perseverance and patience has always paid off.

Now with the ultimate prize at her feet, she has a chance to realize the destiny which many believe is hers.(emb/mds)