Portal:Indonesia/BOTW/39, 2006



Diah Permata Megawati Setiawati Soekarnoputri (born January 23, 1947), was President of Indonesia from July 2001 to October 20, 2004. She was the country's first female President.

On September 20 she lost her campaign for re-election in the 2004 Indonesian presidential election.

Note that Sukarnoputri means "daughter of Sukarno" (Sanskrit) and it is not the President's surname: Javanese do not have surnames. She is simply referred to as Megawati or Mega.

Her name is derived from Sanskrit meghavatī = "she who has a cloud", i.e. a raincloud, as rain is needed to make food crops grow, and it was raining when she was born.

Under Megawati, the process of democratic reform begun under Habibie and Wahid continued, albeit slowly and erratically. Megawati appeared to see her role mainly as a symbol of national unity, and she rarely actively intervened in government business. The military, disgraced at the time of Suharto's fall, regained much of its influence. Corruption continued to be pervasive, though Megawati herself was seldom blamed for this. (read more...)