The first 100 days

President Megawati Soekarnoputri's first 100 days in office is more noteworthy for things that did not take place, than for what did. For sure, many things happened during that period. Most notable of these was the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. Everyone, including ministers and officials in Megawati's Cabinet, agrees that they have changed the world completely.

But when it comes to her presidency, a lot of things that should or could have happened, did not happen.

One crucial element missing intermittently was effective leadership on her part. She did assert her leadership every now and then, but there were many occasions, especially where it counted most, when she failed to come out and show to the nation and the world, that she, and no one else, was in command.

It is not so much that Megawati appeared to have failed to come to grips with the problems facing the nation. From her various speeches -- there were not that many these past three months for a new president -- it was clear that she realized the gravity of the situation in which Indonesia finds itself today.

She knows Indonesia is on the brink of disintegration because of the endless cycle of violence and the apparent breakdown of law and order in various parts of the country. She also recognizes that the economy is on the verge of collapsing and that the government is now staring bankruptcy in the face.

To be fair, these are problems inherited from previous administrations. To expect Megawati to resolve them overnight is to hope for miracles to happen.

But that is precisely why the nation put her in charge. There was a national consensus in July that she was the only leader available at present who could lead the nation out of its predicament. There was widespread consensus from major political parties that she should be allowed to govern until the end of her term in 2004 without facing the threat of impeachment.

Megawati should have made full use of this massive political capital to give Indonesia the firm and effective leadership that it so badly needed.

What the nation saw instead was at times a laid-back leader, who seemed quite content to let her aides take charge, or worse still, let others outside her administration seize the initiative and even take control of the direction in which the nation was heading.

On the political front, she has recognized that the terrorist attacks on the U.S. and the subsequent U.S. military campaign against Afghanistan have strong repercussions at home. Instead of taking on the problem herself, she has let her ministers run the show, and they have dealt with the situation poorly. This allowed marginal, but radical and vocal groups to impose their own agenda upon the rest of the nation.

Megawati also seems to have lost control over the direction of the economy. Many of her economic recovery programs including, most notably, the selling off of state enterprises and of government-held corporate assets, needed to plug the huge budget deficit, crashed to the floor of the House of Representatives.

Admittedly, it is too premature to pass judgment on Megawati's leadership based on her first 100 days in office. This is especially true given the scale and complexity of the problems she inherited, which are now compounded by drastic changes in the global political and economic landscape.

Yet, there is this nagging feeling that Megawati could and should have done much more during that period. She could have been more assertive and given inspiration, guidance and wisdom to the nation in dealing with so many of these problems. On some crucial occasions she should have addressed the nation directly, rather than through proxies.

Not only does she enjoy the immense goodwill of the nation, we know for a fact that she has the ability to rise to the challenge, as she has proved on several occasions in the past. Now that the learning period is over, let's hope that she will mature in the job quickly.