Megawati’s Popularity Drops After One Year in Power
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Megawati, right, shakes hands with former President Abdurrahman Wahid
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By Kazi Mahmood, IOL South East Asia Correspondent
JAKARTA, July 26 (IslamOnline) – Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri this week celebrated her first year in power with a serious drop in popularity. Her party the Democratic Party Of Indonesia (PDI-Struggle) was facing severe collapse, news reports said Friday, July 26, 2002.
The first sign of trouble for Megawati came after a huge demonstration 8 months ago in Jakarta. The offices of her party were ransacked by trishaw riders, who blamed PDI-P party members for abandoning them after the 1999 elections in Indonesia. They also blamed the President for her inaction and for “her lack of humanism”.
Megawati, they say, is on her way to be the next victim of democracy, the ideal she fought for during the days of “reformasi” or reforms in the streets of Jakarta, that helped topple the long time ruler General Suharto in 1998.
On Tuesday, Megawati made a speech to some school children, telling them that she had lost count of time and it was surprising that one year had passed since she took power.
"Today, I had a very beautiful gift. I was sworn in a President last year. I almost forgot about it," she told hundreds of cheering children, unaware that Megawati is currently facing the toughest challenge of her presidency.
Next month, in August, the highest legislative body in the country is to sit for a special meeting to discuss issues that might wreck Megawati’s chances of retaining her job as president in 2004.
The People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR), which has the power to oust a president, will debate constitutional changes to the “stale and old” constitution of Indonesia, a piece of document that is so dear to President Megawati.
Megawati, aware of the consequences of these amendments to the 1945 constitution that established Indonesia as a republic and a country, wants to postpone these amendments.
She said in a recent press statement that she would want to see these amendments voted after the 2004 elections, probably because she knows she might not be president at that time, IslamOnline was told by Musa Slamat of a writer from Indonesia.
“Megawati is fond of her father’s achievement as first president of Indonesia. Ahmad Sukarno is indeed a popular figure, even today, in Indonesia but his ideals do not match our times,” Slamat, who writes on Indonesian politics said.
He added that Megawati would never allow the 1945 constitution “to be ripped off of its soul” while she is still President of the country her father help build and construct.
On Tuesday, some of the more curious children asked Megawati whether it was nice to be President. The latter smilingly said “I enjoy things, but there are always other things I am unable to achieve."
An editor at the Jakarta Post sarcastically wrote that “these other things, however, are costing Megawati her popularity.”
“Critics bemoan her weak leadership in curbing corruption, bringing peace to Aceh and most of all reaching out to the common people who in 1999 made up the bulk of her supporters,” the editorial said.
Trishaw riders, students, office workers and a majority of women in Jakarta voiced their discontent at Megawati this week in online and newspaper polls.
The daily Kompas, a pro-Megawati daily in its Tuesday edition said almost 72 percent of 1,773 respondents polled said they were disappointed with the present government.
A poll by Detik.com Internet news portal showed that 70 percent of its 1,000 respondents considered Megawati a failure.
Some of her ministers in the highly acclaimed cabinet that was announced in August last year also voiced their criticism at Megawati. One minister reportedly said “the President was merely a rubber stamp, yet no one dared take the lead in the cabinet.”
The Jakarta post wrote this week that earlier this month several “nationalist-humanist' figures from 14 provinces met to share their dissatisfaction over Megawati.
"We think they (the government) have failed to build on the reform spirit and have departed from the ideas of our founding fathers," one of the participants said.
On the other hand, Muslim parties are grouping in a possible alliance that could altogether disrupt Megawati’s future plans and probably force her out of office earlier than 2004, sources told IslamOnline.
However, the President is also putting forth her cards and has forged a “secret deal” with the second largest party in the Assembly, the Golkar of former President General Suharto.
Such an alliance might just keep her in power until 2004, when direct presidential elections will then seal her fate, Slamat
said
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