Lunch with Megawati

Lunch with Megawati
Aryo Suharnoko-Michaelsen
Saturday, 3rd July 2009

On Friday the 2nd of July, I attended a luncheon at the intercon Jakarta hosted by the JFCC, the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club; an event where presidential candidate Megawati Sukarnoputri was going to speak. After a 30-minute wait and a quick 3-course meal, she took the stage. After reiterating her recurring theme of potential voter fraud at the polls, she stated her goals and visions for an Indonesia under Prabowo’s, I mean her power. Her intention to “revive” the ancient system of “gotong royong” and independence. Goes on by saying that globalization is “incorrect” but will not close the doors to foreign investment. But as she ended her speech, the fun really began.

Question time. Really called Question and Answer time on the days agenda, but because its Megawati, Question time would suffice. So as the questions flew across the hall and some futile attempts at answering them rolled across the carpet (due to the occasional interpreting slip up), a few stood out. When asked of her view on whether to ban smoking or not her answer was that it would it be unfortunate for the clove farmers. She continued by saying that the problem was not in the cloves but the nicotine, a real shocking revelation, a true Megawati moment. Then when asked about her relationship with current Indonesian president and fellow candidate Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono , affectionately known as SBY. She said it was “Quite good”, Javanese for I have his F*&king guts.

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