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Megawati: Health hoax and succession uncertainty
While the rumor mill has ground to a halt following last week's fake news about Megawati's "critical condition", the one-woman political powerhouse will remain vulnerable to such unscrupulous attacks until she offers some hint at succession certainty.
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Megawati Soekarnoputri speaks during a presidential event on Dec. 3, 2019 at the State Palace in Jakarta, in her capacity as the steering committee head of the Agency for Pancasila Ideology Education (BPIP). (Antara/Puspa Perwitasari)
T
he nearly absolute control Megawati Soekarnoputri wields over the country’s largest political party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), and that it is the only party eligible to nominate its own candidates in the 2024 presidential election, are perhaps among the reasons why fake news about her health attracted nationwide attention last week.
It was saddening to see, however, that some people responded with “jubilation” to the fake news, when it was already hard to believe that a hoax of this type had been spread here. Those behind the fake news should look for more civilized ways to attain their political aspirations or earn money.
Megawati’s close relationship with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, and the President giving her strategic appointments at the Agency for Pancasila Ideology Education (BPIP) and the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), have apparently contributed to growing animosity among her haters, which then translated into rumors of illness.
Just recently, Megawati tearfully defended the President as having fallen victim to insults from some government critics. This probably also fueled resentment among those who oppose Jokowi. Few appear to have related the warmer ties between the two with the possibility that Megawati is preparing Jokowi for a future political position, including the PDI-P’s chief post.
Megawati has yet to drop any hints about her preferred successor as the party’s boss. As I wrote in this newspaper in May, Megawati will need to choose between her son Prananda Prabowo and daughter Puan Maharani as her successor. Puan, however, seems more eager to become either the nation’s president or vice president rather than work with her half-brother Prananda in consolidating the party.
Some have speculated that the PDI-P is on the brink of an internal conflict resulting from succession uncertainty. I guess Megawati has already decided on a successor, and not necessarily from among her children or the offspring of Indonesia’s founding president Sukarno, like her.
At least two items of fake news circulated widely last week on the critical health, if not the death, of the country’s fifth president. Sadly, the content’s tone reflected hatred, rather than empathy, of their creator. You can easily sense this on following the gossip about Megawati’s purported critical condition on social media.
