The 75-year-old matriarch was boastful of her success as the nation’s first woman to become president at the party’s golden jubilee on Tuesday, where she spoke intimately with thousands of fellow cadres after three years of rare public appearances due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Known for peppering her comments with Javanese quips and jokes, 2023’s political importance was not lost on her.

“I encountered a question: what kind of future leader do you expect? ‘Oh,’ I said, ‘don’t you see me? I’m right here,’” Megawati said in her speech, referring to herself as a prime example of a 2024 presidential election candidate.

“Don’t you know that your Ibu is smart, beautiful, charismatic, a fighter? What else do you need?”

Defying expectations that she would announce PDI-P’s choice of presidential candidate, the party chairwoman teased those who expected her to reveal the nominee.

“Not even your applause can persuade me to announce it,” she said to a roaring applause. “It’s my prerogative!”

She also teased President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo for having the PDI-P to thank for launching his political career.

Ahmad Khoirul Umam, a lecturer of politics at Paramadina University, said that while Megawati kept mum on the party’s nominee, her speech, a large portion of which was dedicated to talking about women’s issues, might have hinted at her preference for having the next president be a woman.

“Her speech has strengthened indications that the PDI-P would support [Megawati’s daughter] Puan Maharani to run in the 2024 election,” Umam told The Jakarta Post.

“She clearly does not want to be directed nor controlled by external political maneuvers, either from Jokowi’s volunteer network, pollsters or other parties that try to [leverage the raft of popular presidential hopefuls] and influence internal party decisions,” he said on Thursday.

Female gaze

Megawati’s two-hour speech largely focused on the role of women in positions of authority.

While upholding what is a traditional male view of a woman’s role, as mother and wife, she questioned the continued lack of women in politics.

“[Women] must take care of the household, but that is not all. [Women participation numbers] have fallen in the legislature and in the executive,” the party leader said.

She then went on to list history’s most prominent female figures, from former British premier Margaret Thatcher, to retired German chancellor Angela Merkel and European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde, and even the likes of Cleopatra, the Egyptian empress of yore.

Megawati stressed that women could achieve great things if given the opportunity.

In one symbolic move, she announced the launch of a hospital ship named after Laksamana Malahayati, a descendant of the first Sultan of Aceh, who later in life became the country’s first female admiral.

She even paid tribute to the late ruler of the United Kingdom, Queen Elizabeth II, saying that she had been a good leader to the British for taking on a maternal role. “She played the role of protector and was good at it. Now that she’s gone, with the new king, people have started to question the role of the monarchy,” the PDI-P chairwoman surmised.

Megawati, the daughter of Indonesia’s founding father Sukarno, famously had a hand in promoting women empowerment in politics during and even after her tenure, including by suggesting the appointment of the first woman to become foreign minister, Retno LP Marsudi.

Over a decade ago, the nation introduced a minimum 30 percent requirement to field female legislative candidates for any political party contesting the elections. But the benchmark has remained elusive, with female lawmakers currently accounting for 20.8 percent of the 575 seats at the House of Representatives.

Puan power?

Puan, currently the House speaker, is expected to throw her hat in the ring for 2024, especially after political campaign posters featuring her began appearing around the country.

While advocating for more women leaders in politics should be welcomed, Hurriyah, a political researcher at the University of Indonesia’s Center for Political Studies (Puskapol UI), remained pessimistic that Puan could draw in female voters.

“Gender equality has not become a popular narrative in Indonesia’s mainstream politics,” Hurriyah recently said.

“Puan’s presence cannot be separated from the dynastic politics of Megawati… The public does not see Puan’s own political credentials, but rather, as the daughter of Megawati,” she told the Post.

Some observers however said that Megawati’s speech appeared to serve as an encouragement to her daughter, who will one day inherit her power in the country’s largest party, to achieve more.

“In a way, Ibu Mega was giving her daughter, Puan, who has yet to be competitive enough to run for the national leadership post, some encouragement that she can still achieve higher in the party,” said Sirojudin Abbas, executive director of Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting (SMRC).

“That is why she also touched on the historical relationship between the PDI-P and PNI [the National Indonesian Party] and between Bung Karno and herself. This aspect of continuity in ideological and biological relations is very important for the future of the PDI-P leadership,” he said.

During her speech, Megawati gave public approval for her grandchildren, including two granddaughters, to enter politics, in a move seen by analysts as a way to extend the primacy of the Sukarno clan in the party.

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