Megawati's moral step

With the national crisis which is engulfing economic and political domains, in today's situation the people expect shocking announcements at any time.

However, until last weekend nobody had expected any such element from ousted opposition leader Megawati Soekarnoputri, the eldest daughter of Indonesia's first president, Sukarno. But the cool-headed politician had a concept to solve the precarious national crisis: elect her as president of the nation.

Megawati, who was deposed as PDI chairman in a government- backed congress in 1996, announced, against all odds, that she was ready to replace President Soeharto and urged the incumbent president to pave way for her.

Her extraordinary courage has spurred political observers to ask where she is heading with the plan since her chance for the job is next to nothing. In taking such bold action is she following in the footsteps of Jailany Naro, a former chairman of the United Development Party (PPP), which is another small political entity within the current system, who was nominated by his party for vice president of the nation in 1988, and then ran aground and was pushed into obscurity?

President Soeharto, in his autobiography Fikiran, Ucapan dan Tindakan Saya (My Thoughts, Words and Deeds), lashes out at Naro and his party for such an "unjust maneuver".

Megawati seems to have calculated that within the current system she would not get support from any faction in the People's Consultative Assembly, the only organizations which have the right to put forward a presidential candidate.

She surely well understands that neither PPP nor PDI will nominate her for the number one post. The PPP leadership, which was supposed to have announced its own presidential candidate last month, has not done so yet due to what looks like mysterious political fear.

And there is not the least possibility she can expect the PDI to help her as the party is being run by those who ousted her.

However, Megawati's prime aim is clear, to thaw the ice within our political realm. The current situation will take our nation nowhere, except to dump it deeper into the same stale status quo, which is too dear a price to pay in the current crisis.

Megawati also understands that her chances are not as great as those of Corazon Aquino when the latter fought to unseat the corrupt Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos. But the fearless Indonesian politician apparently wants to show that at least her sincerity for democracy is no less than that of the democratic- minded Filipina.

Megawati also believes that although she enjoys very little support from the authorized factions, she can do something for change, the nation's most cherished ideal today. She believes her popularity is strong enough to rock the foundations of the current system.

She has gained such huge popularity without being a fierce, grandiose character and without her party illicitly buying people's votes, but rather through people's genuine sympathy for her party's beaten condition. She has not only become one of the most helpless victims of the system, but also for many people she is their conscience.

Her integrity and respect for the supremacy of law when she was a casualty of a dirty political game, has earned her more support from the poor. But the greatest magnet about her is that although her father ruled the country for more than two decades, she sill a normal citizen who leads a modest life.

With these qualities it is no wonder that within a short time she has gained support from the supporters of those clamoring for democracy, such as Amien Rais and Abdurrahman Wahid.

Many believe that Megawati's move, although only a moral step, has potential enough to stir the established system and will help the push for more transparency and political openness.