Word: wahid
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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When the scorpion tanks clattered to a halt outside the Istana Merdeka palace in Jakarta, Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid was at first relieved. "Maybe they're here to protect the palace," he said to his daughter. But when she pointed out that the tanks had swiveled their guns toward his balcony, Wahid knew that he had lost a game of brinkmanship. The security forces had switched loyalties to his Vice President, Megawati Sukarnoputri...
...days last week, Indonesia had an embarrassment of Presidents. Even after Wahid was impeached and the People's Consultative Assembly gave Megawati his post, the irascible and nearly blind Muslim cleric held on. "They can turn off the water and electricity, but they're not going to get me out of here," Wahid, 61, told his wife Sinta Nuriyah. But Megawati had already put the presidential "No. 1" license plate on her black Mercedes limousine. "That's fine, dear," sighed Wahid's wife. "But the people are going to be looking to you for leadership. What then?" Wahid finally agreed...
...ousted Suharto, Megawati won a plurality of the vote. And that despite the fact that she has few visible talents as a politician. She seldom speaks in public and rarely discusses anything approximating policy; and the fact that she allowed herself to be outmaneuvered for the presidency by Abdurrahman Wahid despite her election victory spoke to what many commentators see as an epic political ineptitude. But she had the Sukarno name, and the potent mystique it acquired in the Suharto years, and an abiding sense of entitlement that supporters see as explaining her reluctance to engage in politicking. But many...
...Very much so. So was Wahid, of course, but Megawati is much more so. In fact, people say she doesn't want to be president; she wants to be queen. She thinks it's her birthright to rule as the daughter of the father of modern Indonesia, but she doesn't want to concern herself with the messy responsibilities that come with power...
...interesting that there have been no demonstrations either for or against Megawati so far. Unlike the time when Suharto was overthrown, people now look at it as the usual shadow puppet game of the elite moving around and exchanging cabinet posts. For ordinary people, they see that Wahid didn't work, and now they'll try Megawati. But without any conviction that things will be any better...