President defends record

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

President Megawati Soekarnoputri publicly defended her record after one year in office for the first time on Thursday, asserting that it was impossible to resolve the country's hardships quickly.

Speaking at the opening ceremony for a national conference of the Nahdlatul Ulama, the country's largest Muslim organization, Megawati said that it would be unfair to say that she had completely failed in leading the country.

"It is incorrect to say that there has been no improvement at all in the country," she said.

Megawati, who took over the presidency on July 23, 2001, after the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) had dismissed then president Abdurrahman Wahid for incompetence, tried to highlight her achievements after one year in office.

"We have successfully cracked down on secessionist movements in the country although security in large cities still needs to be improved," said Megawati, who was accompanied by her husband, businessman Taufik Kiemas, and a number of Cabinet ministers.

Government troops have been fighting against rebels in Aceh and Papua provinces where secessionist movements have been waging war for independence since the 1970s.

She also stressed that many sectarian riots and ethnic conflicts had been tackled, referring to conflicts in Central Sulawesi and Maluku provinces.

Analysts said, however, that the current, relatively calm state of affairs was due to her decision to form allegiances with long-established players -- the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the Golkar Party.

The President also claimed that she had managed to be the guardian of democracy by ensuring freedom of speech, although she was quick to express concern over "the quality of the freedom itself."

"The government has also been able to stabilize the rupiah exchange rate as the basis for economic improvement," she said. The rupiah is currently hovering at Rp 8,900 to Rp 9,000 per U.S. dollar, compared with over Rp 11,000 before she took over the presidency.

She emphasized that relations with foreign donors had been restored and the bank restructuring program would soon be advanced enough to reactivate trading, export and investment activities.

"It takes time, patience and persistence to tackle such huge and complex problems in the country," she stressed.

Megawati has come under fire for her failure to accelerate reform and prosecute big-time corrupters from the New Order regime.

Amendment of the outdated 1945 Constitution, which is regarded as the quintessence of reform, has moved at a snail's pace as Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) has attempted to stop the move, arguing that the process has gone astray.

Megawati has also been accused of giving the military a renewed backroom role in government.

Concerned groups and students, which spearheaded the country's reform movement in 1998, have returned to street rallies, accusing Megawati of being a major stumbling block to reform.

Her popularity has continued to fall, with the latest survey carried out by Kompas daily indicating that 72 percent of its 1,773 respondents expressed disappointment over Megawati's leadership.

Later on Thursday, Megawati admitted that reform had hit a snag, but laid the blame on the country's bureaucracy rather than her backroom political dealings.

The bureaucracy, she said, especially officials at echelon I and II, had failed to follow her instructions.

"That is why I am trying to find a way to scrutinize the first and second echelons to speed up reform in the country," Megawati said in an off-the-cuff statement during the opening ceremony for a seminar by the National Institute of Administration (LAN) at the State Palace.

The President said she could handle the ministers directly but, "supervision does not reach the officials below them (the ministers)".

Responding to public criticism that she lacked the determination to carry out reform, she stressed that she had enough political will but the bureaucrats did not support her.

"Changes should start with the bureaucrats as they are the ones who carry out the business of government," Megawati said.

She charged that her policies had not got beyond the initial stages as the bureaucrats had failed to cooperate.

"I have to reveal this truth to the public so that stagnation of the country's reform can be avoided," Megawati said.

She stressed that there was an urgency for the country's bureaucrats to shape up so that the government's performance could be improved.