Megawati slams the concept of absolute power

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)