Megawati's last stand came too late

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In the last 10 months of her presidency, Megawati Soekarnoputri tried to do the impossible: make up for the disappointment of her first 28 months in office.

Megawati went to great lengths to win reelection and retain her presidency with shows of affections toward the wong cilik, or little people, and by pushing for a series of popular policies. In the end, however, she found that 10 months of affection cannot make up for 28 months of disappointment.

She opened 2004 with the breakthrough policy of finalizing the social security law, which provides free health services for poor people across the country.

The law itself was stipulated in a decree issued in 2000 by the People's Consultative Assembly, which had been put off by Megawati's administration until elections were at the door.

She also initiated a program to build one million houses for the poor, while asking the people to participate in the country's first direct presidential election.

To win over women voters, a three-year long discussion within the State Secretariat on a domestic violence law finally bore fruit and Megawati submitted a draft law to the House of Representatives. She won praise from women activists who had expressed doubt about her pro-women stance at the beginning of her term.

Megawati also spent time visiting the provinces and cut back on her much-criticized foreign travels.

Now when Megawati visited the provinces much fuss was made about her talking with street children and pedicab drivers and shaking hands with the crowds that came out to see her, activities that she studiously avoided in the beginning of her term.

Megawati also made more public appearances near the end of her term, such as receiving the parents of Nirmala Bonat, an Indonesian maid severely abused by her employee in Malaysia.

But the attention and care she showed for Nirmala and later the Indonesian maids taken hostages in Iraq was in stark contrast to 2002, when tens of thousands of Indonesian workers were stranded in Nunukan, East Kalimantan, after being deported from Malaysia. Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was very active and visible in visiting her country's stranded workers -- while Megawati chose instead to leave the country on a 15-day overseas trip.

Many times during her three years as president, Megawati sent the wrong signal to the public.

One notable example was last year's fuel price hike, which was quickly followed by the dismissal of criminal charges against several business tycoons alleged to have siphoned off funds from the central bank, contributing to the 1997 economic crisis. This contradiction, perceived as punishing the poor while letting the rich walk free, sent a bitter, confusing message.

These may have been the most prudent economic policies at the time, but the manner in which they seemed to be imposed on the public without sufficient consultation or sincere tangible efforts to restore state funds increased the perception that Megawati was on the side of the rich at the expense of the rest of the 220 million Indonesians.

That perception was a difficult one to shake -- the decision to raise fuel prices was announced while she was in Bali for New Year's Eve and celebrating her husband Taufik Kiemas' birthday at a five-star hotel with a one-meter tall cake.

Another significant example of Megawati making a misstep was in the early days of Indonesia's war on terror, soon after the Bali bombings in 2002.

Most public appearances to show the government's determination to arrest the perpetrators were made by then chief security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who stole the spotlight and created for himself an image as a caring leader.

This was evident in his victory in the presidential election, even in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam. Even if Susilo was among the main officials responsible for allowing the military operation in Aceh to take place, the Acehnese had clearly lost all hope of Megawati being able to make good on her promise that a Cut Nyak, woman leader, "would not let another drop of blood spill in Aceh".

Even after Megawati ended martial law in Aceh and replaced it with a state of civilian emergency, civilians continued to be killed, trapped in a war zone.

Megawati belatedly realized she had wasted the three years of the presidency when her party, the Indonesian Democratic party of Struggle (PDI-P), finished in second place in the April 2004 legislative election.

There were times after the legislative election when she almost gave up on the idea on contesting the presidential election.

"There were a lot of things that I should have done before, but I didn't do," a close aide quoted her as saying after the defeat. A simple visit to Nunukan might have been one of them. All her belated shows of affection should have been part of her presidency from day one.

Her defeat should be a warning to President Susilo. His mandate as the first directly elected Indonesian president is strong; yet he should be mindful of his pledge always to listen to people, especially if he intends to finish his term and seek reelection.