One year on

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.