Megawati Proposes UN Security Council Restructuring, Questions Unresolved Wars
Indonesia’s fifth president and PDIP chairwoman, Megawati Soekarnoputri, has called for the structure of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to be changed. Megawati believes the current structure needs to be adapted to the state of the world today.
She made the remarks during a dialogue with Timor-Leste President José Ramos-Horta and several Nobel laureates and Turing Award winners at the Megawati Institute building in Central Jakarta on Friday (28/8/2026). Megawati noted that the UN Security Council’s structure was created after the Second World War.
“My father was someone who always asked that the United Nations must change itself because it was created after the Second World War,” she said.
“Civilisation is different now. This is to ensure greater justice,” she continued.
She argued that changing the UNSC structure is necessary to create a more just world order. Megawati wants nations that were not yet independent in the past to also have a place on the UN Security Council.
“I have repeatedly asked that the Security Council’s structure should no longer be what it is today. It must truly undergo a new change, where the nations that exist now, which in the past may not yet have been independent, also get a place on the Security Council,” she explained.
Megawati hopes the idea will gain support. She then questioned the UN’s ability to resolve the conflicts and wars that are still occurring.
“Hopefully what I have said will receive tremendous support. Because it is impossible… as things stand now, in my view as a president, why can wars not be resolved by the United Nations? That is a big question for me,” she said.
On the occasion, Megawati also touched on technological developments that could strengthen cooperation between nations. She said advances in communication technology have made the distance between countries increasingly irrelevant.
“Technology has proven capable of supporting cooperation through increasingly reliable communication systems,” she said.
“Now we feel as though we have no distance. Within minutes we can meet, we can talk, and so on. Through this forum, I call for the importance of technology for the advancement of civilisation. Once again, the advancement of civilisation, not the destruction of civilisation,” she continued.
Megawati urged that technological development be used for the advancement of civilisation. In her view, international law is needed to govern such developments.
“The negative impacts of science and technology on humanity must be prevented through international cooperation. We need international law that regulates this, while also preventing the world from becoming further divided by geopolitical competition and economic interests,” she said.
“Therefore, today’s meeting is not merely a meeting with scientists who have produced extraordinary achievements. I see it as an opportunity to bring together science and political responsibility, especially for humanity,” Megawati added.