The darling of the media

The article titled Megawati laughs at Abdurrahman's move" (The Jakarta Post, June 13, 2001) proves to me once more that the Post sees through rose-colored spectacles when reporting about Megawati Soekarnoputri's performance as vice president. Whatever the Post wrote so far about her -- every sentence, every letter and even the space between the lines -- sounds like a laud. It seems that the Post makes Megawati an icon who is not supposed to be criticized. There is nothing wrong if a daily or weekly promotes a particular politician, this is common in all democratic countries around the world; but such support shouldn't get out of proportion.

A vice president is supposed to aid the president, but from what I have observed, Megawati was not of much help for the president. In fact, I cannot recall any action for which she would deserve to be praised. So far, the Vice President hasn't come up with any concrete suggestion on how she would solve the nation's burning problems, for instance the economic crisis, the separatist movements, the sectarian clashes in Maluku (which to resolve she was given a special mandate by President Wahid), and how to combat corruption, collusion and nepotism.

In fact, she has hardly ever made a public statement herself. Headlines that read Megawati said..." usually turn out to mean "...was quoted as saying...". That means that anything she "said" can be questioned because one can never be sure whether it was an authentic statement of hers or the opinion of one of her aides.

During the past weeks, the Vice President has given a most questionable performance concerning her duties. She embarrassed the blind President Wahid in front of an international audience by refusing to read out his opening speech to the G-15 participants. She also refused to attend cabinet meetings, and she didn't show up twice when new ministers were sworn in, only because she was not comfortable with the President's cabinet reshuffle. I wonder whether such behavior can be called statesmanship?

If Megawati ignores the fact that she is still the Vice President and has certain obligations, and if her so called "good advisors" fail to remind her accordingly, then it should be the duty of the media to do so. But instead, the media tend to turn a blind eye to her weak performance.

Finally, I would like to remind the Post that all of its readers are intellectually mature people who are quite capable of making up their own minds about Megawati's performance, and who cannot be manipulated by one-sided reporting.

MRS. HILDE MAY

Jakarta