Find the meaning of these words
31 among Asias most important economies. Spanning the oceans from Thailand to
Australia, the 14,000-island archipelago serves as a kind of geopolitical tollgate to the Pacific. The Japanese occupied it in World War II, and its strategic
significance was underlined in the early 1960s when it became the theater of perhaps the bloodiest-ever proxy war between China and the United States.
Megawatis father, President Sukarno, who had steered the nation to independence in 1945, was overthrown in a bloody coup in 1965. The new
dictator, Suharto, was viewed by Washington as the indispensable strategic counterweight to Chinese ambitions in Asia. Today, three years after Suhartos
ouster, the fate of Indonesia may be even more critical for a U.S. administration that envisages long-term strategic competition with China.
But Indonesia, at the moment, is in critical condition. The nation has never recovered from the financial crisis that precipitated the overthrow of Suharto,
much less from the resulting political turmoil that has produced three presidents in three years. Hanging over all is the fear that the entire country
might descend into a violent disintegration similar to the bloodbath that accompanied East Timors independence. Separatist rebellions in Aceh and Irian
Jaya and inter-communal violence in the Moluccas and elsewhere show that the patchwork of ethnic enclaves that became a nation-state only by dint of their
common colonization by the Dutch is now threatening to fall apart.
Princess to the rescue
Megawati may see herself as the nations reluctant savior. The 54-year-old matriarch was pressed into politics at age 40 by opponents of the dictatorship
who hoped to use the Sukarno mythology to rally support. And it worked. In 1999, when Indonesians had their first opportunity to vote for a successor to the
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 observers suspect
that she just may not be up to the cut and thrust of the backroom power- brokering that continues to define politics in Jakarta.
Still, Megawatis presidency is a product of that very backroom intrigue she shuns. Her family may have been ousted from power by Suharto, but it
remained part of Jakartas fractious political and economic elite. The very same coalition of forces that united to keep her out of the top job after the 1999
election have now united to elevate her. Little is known of her political thinking beyond a broad echo of her fathers nationalism. Its a nationalism strongly
supported by the military, a nationalism that doesnt easily tolerate federalism or secession, which suggests shell authorize a harsh response to the troubles in
the provinces. On the economy, she remains a blank slate: Shell commit to the IMFs ideas about how Indonesias economy should be reformed, but its not yet
clear whether shell challenge the interests of the elite by cleaning up the banking system and putting an end to corruption.
32
And will she live happily ever after?
Of course those may seem like minor details to a princess restoring her fathers throne — the sort of messy things one hires a prime minister to take
care of. She sees for herself the more lofty role of Mother Mega, soothing and caring for Indonesians who feel abandoned by the state. Millions of Indonesians
have looked to her in precisely those terms. Now that she is their president, the Sukarno mythology wont be enough — her political survival now will depend on
political skills she has not yet revealed.
And her destiny may be not unlike the end of Shrek where the true test of love comes when the newly restored princess is revealed to be plain and
uninspiring. source:
http:www.time.comtimepowarticle0,8599,169130,00.html
2. Complete the following Generic Structure of the article “Megawati: The Princess Who Settled for the Presidency”
Title General
Classification
Description 1. The history