Megawati slams the concept of absolute power

JAKARTA (JP): With her chances of succeeding the embattled President Abdurrahman Wahid increasing by the day, Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri on Monday slammed the concept of absolute power in leading the country.

Indonesia needed a new vision of power to lift itself out of the present crisis and to prevent it from becoming the "sick man of Asia", Megawati said in a speech to mark the 36th anniversary of the National Resilience Institute (Lemhanas), a government think tank.

The speech came as Abdurrahman faces mounting pressure to resign or face impeachment. Megawati, who will likely succeed him either way, has been criticized in the past for keeping too low a profile, leaving many to second guess her vision as well as her ability to lead.

Her speech at Lemhanas gave a rare glimpse into the vision of the "president-in-waiting", from the need to preserve the country's territorial integrity, a new vision of power that is accountable to the people, to the inclusion of a human dimension in the management of the state, and a foreign policy that supports national objectives.

Indonesia had no choice but to adjust itself so as to become a constructive force in the new world order, Megawati said.

"The highest priority for reform is our vision of power. In a world that has become interdependent, there is no place for the absolute power concept.

"In this modern world, all power is relative and must be accounted for, both to the people as the repository of the state's sovereignty, and the civilized world," she asserted.

Megawati said Indonesia must abandon the old concept of power which tended towards authoritarianism in favor of a democratic concept.

"Power is simply a tool, a means to achieve higher goals, namely prosperity and peace for all the people," she said.

"In this new vision, the measure of success for a leader is no longer the amount of power that he accumulates, but on how far this power can benefit the people," she said.

A leader should derive his legitimacy from the people and not from his own power, she added.

While professing to remain loyal to Abdurrahman, Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) has played a pivotal role in the House of Representatives' passing of two successive motions of censure against the President.

The President has until May 30 to respond to the House's latest censure. An unsatisfactory answer could trigger the launch of impeachment proceedings.

If and when Megawati succeeds Abdurrahman, she will inherit a nation in near ruin following decades of mismanagement.

In her speech, the daughter of first president Sukarno was fully confident that Indonesia would be able to adjust, stressing the need to focus on the human dimension in the new world order.

"For us, the future of this nation depends on the question of whether or not we are able to adapt to this human dimension.

"If we were able to do so, we would not only be lifting ourselves out of the present crisis, but we would also be able to provide a better standard of living for all our people."

Indonesia, she said, ought to learn from the failures of the many nation states which had disintegrated in the later part of the 20th century.

"We need to learn and analyze the factors that caused such tragedies, and use this knowledge to prevent a repetition in our own beloved country," she said. (dja)