Salam Permias, Harian terkemuka The Wall Street Journal tanggal 10 Juni 1999 menurunkan laporan menarik tentang Mbak Mega di halaman pertama. Setelah membaca laporan yang saya sertakan di bawah tentunya rekan-rekan bisa mengerti kenapa saya menulis subject "Mbak Mega, "Beauty and the Beast," Meditation, and Twice a Year." Selamat menikmati. Jabat erat, Ahmad Syamil Toledo, OH ******************************* June 10, 1999 Indonesians Seek Change Through The Daughter of a Former Autocrat By ROBERT FRANK and JAY SOLOMON Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Cheering for change and demanding new blood in politics, Indonesians have taken to the polls and voted in droves for ... the daughter of a former president. "Her father was a great leader," says Andi Supani, a noodle peddler in Jakarta, referring to the legendary autocrat Sukarno. "He united the country, and that's what we need now." After Monday's historic elections here -- the first free vote in more than 40 years -- Indonesia is waking up to an unsettling question: Who did we elect, anyway? The vote promised a break from the past and a leap forward to a new democracy. Now, it's beginning to look more like a small step for democracy and a giant leap backward to the halcyon memory of a late president. Though only a small fraction of the votes have been counted, early results and anecdotal evidence suggest that the biggest vote-getter in the parliamentary elections will be the party of 52-year-old Megawati Sukarnoputri, Sukarno's daughter and, in recent years, a popular opposition leader. Even with a strong showing at the polls, she won't be assured the presidency: That selection process will probably involve months of back-room politics ahead of a November vote by the Parliament that was elected Monday. At the least, she is likely to play a key role in the nation's new democracy. The trouble is, her chief political asset is her name. A college dropout, Ms. Megawati dislikes debate, avoids the press and meditates to seek advice from her dead father. Her favorite movie is Disney's "Beauty and the Beast," which she has watched more than 50 times. Unusual for the West, perhaps, but not in many developing democracies. Ms. Megawati is just the latest product of the political dynasties that have taken root in Asia. Call them legacy leaders -- privileged, inexperienced, but well-meaning relatives of national patriarchs who win office based more on pedigree than on policy. Not surprisingly, many have failed as politicians. Granted, the West has its share of ruling families. Witness the Kennedys, or the candidacy this year of George W. Bush for the presidency and possibly that of Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Senate. But Asia has taken the legacy leader to extremes. In Sri Lanka, President Chandrika Kumaratunga is the daughter of two prime ministers. Her father was assassinated in 1959, and her mother, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, took over in 1960. Today, the mother is prime minister and the daughter is president. In Malaysia, one of the most-talked-about possible successors to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is the wife of jailed politician Anwar Ibrahim. In India, Sonia Gandhi, the widow of murdered former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, is emerging as the top candidate for prime minister in the coming elections, despite having been born an Italian Catholic. In Bangladesh, Sheik Hasina Wajed, the widow of Sheik Mujibur Rahman, the nation's founder, has calmed ethnic conflicts and begun settling old disputes with India, although her battles with the country's previous prime minister (also a political widow) have hampered development. Why is Asia prone to legacy leaders? Part of the reason is cultural: In many Asian countries, the traditional devotion and loyalty to family persists -- not just in politics, but in business and the arts, as well. Sitar impresario Ravi Shankar recently toured the world with his daughter, presenting her as his musical "heir." Dynasties also fill a spiritual need. In Indonesia, like much of Southeast Asia, voters believe the spirits of fallen leaders live on through their children. Campaign T-shirts and posters for Ms. Megawati often showed the smiling face of her father in the background. Ms. Megawati has told advisers that she visits her father in dreams, a claim that boosts her credibility with voters. Yet dynasties and politics produce troubled offspring, as many of the families admit. The late Jawaharlal Nehru, the former Indian prime minister whose daughter, Indira, was Rajiv's mother and Sonia's mother-in-law -- scorned dynasties as being antidemocratic. In his book "Glimpses of World History," which he wrote in prison in 1934, Mr. Nehru criticized Napoleon for his "curious and vulgar passion for pushing on his family ... and [for being] very keen on founding a dynasty." Ms. Kumaratunga of Sri Lanka once said in an interview: "Dynastic control of parties is not good." Still, a powerful name carries opportunity and hope, as Ms. Megawati is discovering. Her calm, maternal air plays well to the Javanese masses, who value humility. During her campaign speeches, she could hush a screaming arena with the wave of a hand, and she ended all her rallies by singing a popular children's song. She is seen as a great unifier for the 13,000-island archipelago, which is fraying at the edges. With such strong support from the public, Ms. Megawati has a rare chance to push through much-needed reforms in the economy, the legal system and the notoriously corrupt government. "We need to help the people who've suffered," she said in a recent interview. "Then we have a foundation for the future." Ms. Megawati hasn't suffered much herself. Billed as the nation's great populist, she was raised in a presidential palace in Jakarta. She says she learned about the poor from the servants' children. Her father, dubbed the George Washington of Indonesia, is credited with pulling together a nation from a sprawling archipelago long ruled by the Dutch. A blustery and charismatic leader known for his rousing speeches and stylish sunglasses, Mr. Sukarno dismantled the legislature, crippled the economy, bullied neighboring Singapore and Malaysia and installed himself as "President for Life." He was ousted when Gen. Suharto, who succeeded him as president, suppressed an alleged communist coup attempt in 1965. Like former Philippine President Corazon Aquino, Rajiv Gandhi and former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Ms. Megawati was drafted into politics by fate. A mother of three, Ms. Megawati and her husband lived much of their lives in a villa outside of Jakarta. The couple operated a small chain of gas stations. Friends say Ms. Megawati's passions were cooking and flower arranging. But in the late 1980s, one of the state's three sanctioned political parties, the Indonesian Democratic Party, or PDI, came knocking on her door. The aim was to boost the party's popularity by adding a Sukarno to the roster. (Ms. Megawati's last name, Sukarnoputri, literally means "daughter of Sukarno.") The party first approached her brother and sister. When they declined, they settled on Ms. Megawati. "She was the daughter of Sukarno, and we knew we could sell the image of Sukarno through her," says Ismunandar, a senior PDI official at the time who, like many Indonesians, uses one name. Ms. Megawati accepted, and she gradually became a symbol of Indonesia's downtrodden. In 1996, she was propelled to stardom when Mr. Suharto's government orchestrated her ouster as PDI chief by sponsoring a rival faction in the party to vote her out. The Making of a Heroine But the putsch backfired. Indonesians, reminded of her father's downfall at the hands of the military, rallied around Ms. Megawati as a national heroine. When she gave speeches criticizing the Suharto regime and that of his successor, B.J. Habibie, she became the undisputed daughter of the revolution. Last year, Ms. Megawati formed her own political party, which she continues to run as chairman. Yet she remains a political enigma. Her campaign speeches are famously vague, filled with promises of peace, caring and nonviolence. During a pep talk to her party officers in the early 1990s, she exhorted them: "Let's keep the good things and fix the bad things," says Tiop Harun Sitorus, secretary general of the PDI's Jakarta branch at the time. When she was running the party, paperwork and nominations languished for months in her office. "It was impossible to challenge her because she's the daughter of Sukarno," Mr. Sitorus says. Treated with reverence, legacy leaders like Ms. Megawati often lack the political scrap and savvy of those who have risen through the ranks. Instead, they often rely on advisers. Mrs. Aquino, whose popularity stemmed from her murdered husband, fell prey to a divided cabinet while rich land-owning clans gained new clout. Her weak leadership led to six coup attempts, thousands of labor strikes and a massive withdrawal of foreign investment. Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto, whose father was ousted as the nation's leader and then hanged, appeared to have strong political will, but was dogged by allegations of corruption against her money-minded husband and his circle of cronies. Allegations of corruption also followed Rajiv Gandhi, who succeeded his assassinated mother as India's prime minister in 1984. Fears of corruption and cronyism already are splintering the Megawati group. One camp, led by reformists, is pushing for a dramatic overhaul of business and politics in Indonesia. Another group, led by retired generals and former aides to Mr. Suharto, is pushing for softer change. Others fear the influence of Ms. Megawati's husband, Taufiq Kiemas, who continues to own the gas-station business and who is running for Parliament. One of his relatives is also running for a seat. "We have to be very careful about who she lets into her circle," says Mochtar Buchori, one of her top advisers. "It's my biggest concern." Problems With Democracy The fear is compounded by another trait of legacy leaders: disregard for democratic principles. Because they often see power as a birthright or destiny, family dynasties occasionally revert to autocratic rule when times get tough. Indira Gandhi, for example, declared an "emergency" in 1975, suspending India's democracy. Ms. Bhutto, educated at Harvard, collided frequently with Pakistan's opposition-led Parliament, jailing some of her opponents. Ms. Megawati has shown a similar distaste for compromise. She has called for a delay in the referendum on independence by the people of East Timor, saying the timing is bad and that the nation must remain united. Her party meetings have become autocratic affairs where advisers rarely venture criticism. During her term in Parliament in the late-1980s, Ms. Megawati appeared as little as twice a year -- only for Suharto speeches. She recently refused to participate in a presidential debate with the other candidates, saying it was "contrary to Oriental culture." Her most notorious misstep, however, occurred last year. In November, seven students demonstrating for reform were gunned down by the military in Jakarta. Ms. Megawati remained silent. Many of her supporters tried to persuade her to make a public statement to help prevent more killings. She remained silent. Finally, two leading political activists, academic Arief Budiman and playwright Ratna Sarumpaet, went to her villa on Nov. 13 to plead in person. After a long wait, a guard answered the door and replied: "Ms. Mega can't be disturbed. She's taking a nap." Return to top of page |
