One year on

There must be something wrong, or missing, if, as of today, a year after President Megawati Soekarnoputri took the helm, she is still an enigma to most people. It is really ironic that we have survived for thirty years playing the guessing game of what was on former president Soeharto's mind and now we have to endure, for how long we don't know, years of trying to figure out what's really on Megawati's.

The real reason behind her support for the reelection of unpopular Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso, for example, is the latest piece in the puzzle. And the fact that she has refused to give a satisfactory and comprehensive explanation of her endorsement has added another layer of mystery to the Megawati guessing game.

Of course she is not as mysterious as the Mona Lisa, with her mysterious smile. And unlike the sphinxes, which have been smiling but not speaking for centuries while guarding the pyramids, Megawati speaks a lot and smiles a lot. But there is no denying that she prefers to keep many things to herself. Whether it is because she is full of distrust of other people, or because she has no one she feels she can trust fully is an unanswered question.

To be fair, her "silence is golden" stance is a welcome breath of fresh air after 18 months of the noisy, unpredictable and zig- zag style of government of her predecessor, Abdurrahman Wahid. Her silence may have had a stabilizing effect on a jittery economy, as demonstrated by the stronger rupiah and a relatively calm market in the last few months.

That's why there's a high, perhaps too high, expectation of Megawati's administration. People who were fed up and numbed by the crisis, expected her to be a savior who could raise the country from the mire. And when the slow-moving administration did not immediately deliver on expectations -- one cannot deny that the multidimensional crisis is too huge to resolve within so short a time -- people became disillusioned. As time went by, the administration's weaknesses became more exposed.

A public opinion poll conducted by Kompas daily last week revealed what the public felt about the Megawati administration. The survey questioned 1,773 respondents in 13 cities and discovered how public confidence in Megawati's leadership had dwindled. Most said they were disappointed by the administration's performance in almost all aspects. For example, they rated the administration's performance in politics and the judiciary as poor. Only 21 percent expressed satisfaction with the government's performance in upholding the law, as compared with 52 percent during the first three months of her administration.

In the combat to eradicate corruption, an even larger (85 percent) proportion of respondents was dissatisfied with the administration's performance. One of the most interesting findings in this survey is that 74 percent of the respondents who claimed to be Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) voters in the 1999 election expressed dissatisfaction with Megawati's government.

The mounting criticism of Megawati, to a certain extent, has been caused by the administration's poor handling of public relations. Governing requires good communication and a lack of it can cause miscommunication and misunderstanding. And a president should communicate with the public openly on a regular basis about her vision and agenda. The many problems of the current administration are undoubtedly caused by Megawati's reluctance to be more open to media scrutiny. For example, for months the public has questioned the role of Megawati's husband Taufik Kiemas in a number of political deals, but not a word of explanation has ever come from Megawati's mouth.

She seems to be content with her present style of leadership by delegating power to the three coordinating ministers, thus allowing herself a four-day working week, as Friday is allocated for dealing with PDI Perjuangan affairs.

In short, Megawati has not tried hard enough to build, maintain or sell a good image as a leader. She seems to be ignorant of, or perhaps confident of her image with the public, thus causing people sometimes to call her insensitive. She has tended to let the enigma grow around her.

Therefore, a lot of questions have been left hanging and unanswered. For instance, is Megawati a true reformer? Can we expect her to reform the country and should she be given another term of office after 2004? Is she a naive politician when she claims that she has trust in the country's legal system (despite its shortcomings) and therefore did nothing to push the fight to combat corruption?

Does she hide her incompetence and weaknesses behind her smiles and repeated excuses, for example, that she simply inherited a garbage bin?

Only Megawati herself can answer these questions. She should know modern politics needs mass marketing to build, sell, advertise and market images and ideas. If we impose a direct presidential election by 2004, voters and not parties will have a final say in electing the president. If Megawati does not start to cultivate her image, she might miss her chance. Unless, of course, she chooses to postpone the direct presidential election to 2009.