Megawati's moral step

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.