Indonesia's Most Powerful Kingmaker Wants Daughter as President
Politicians dress up early for presidential sweepstakes
The fight for Indonesia’s presidency has begun to surface even though the election is still two years away, with the biggest dilemma emerging in the country’s largest political party, with Megawati Sukarnoputri, arguably the country’s most powerful political figure, determined to install her unelectable daughter, Puan Maharani, as the party’s candidate, while the popular central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo, is at least temporarily in the deep freeze.
Although two other major political constellations are putting together coalitions to back Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto and Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan, it is Megawati’s Indonesian Justice Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDIP, that is at the center of the drama.
Puan Maharani, 49 years old, grew up with many privileges. She is the granddaughter of Sukarno, known as the country's founding father. Megawati was Indonesia’s fourth president and rules as chairman of the PDIP. Puan is often referred to as the "crown princess" because it has long been assumed that she would succeed her mother as PDIP leader and an eventual presidential candidate. She cut her teeth as a youthful politician and heads the PDIP ‘s politics and security units…