May 1, 2003

Power Behind the Throne: Taufik Kiemas

Eric Ellis, Jakarta

In modern politics it is difficult to know what constitutes appropriate behaviour for the husbands of female leaders.

In Indonesia, however, Taufik Kiemas, the garrulous spouse of President Megawati Sukarnoputri, is redefining the parameters.

As the long list of nicknames devised by his inventive countrymen suggests, the 59-year-old Taufik has developed a range of roles.

For national tragedies, he is "Pak Taufik" (Father Taufik), an avuncular and comforting
figure alongside his wife's public displays of suffering as the maternal "Ibu Mega" (Mother Mega).

At election time, he becomes "T.K.", the consummate political networker who closes deals in party rooms and political salons. And for moments of statecraft that require a mix of the above, he is "Mr One-and-a-Half", a super-aide who's not quite the president but rather more than the vice-president, too.

All three of Taufik's incarnations were on display last October, when homegrown terrorist bombs devastated Bali's Kuta Beach and much of Indonesia's tourist industry.

It was Taufik who persuaded his wife that this was her "9-11 moment", that since most of the victims were foreign and the international media was clamouring for a reaction, this was the time to be
presidential.

The day after the blast, Megawati toured the bombsite - her entourage unwittingly compromising the still uninvestigated crime scene. And that was largely the extent of her public involvement in Asia's worst terrorist atrocity. She then boarded the presidential jet for an economic conference in Mexico that her ministers easily could have attended instead. The domestic details, such as developing an anti-terrorism policy and advancing the police investigation into the attack, were left to her husband.

A month later, Taufik represented the government at the purification ritual for Kuta, a ceremony performed by Bali's most senior Hindu priests to "cleanse" the bombsite and to show publicly that Indonesia would confront extremism.

What's more, Taufik then gave a group of selected foreign correspondents the interview that his reluctant wife has never provided, insisting that "very good progress" was being made to crack down on Islamic extremism. Indeed, he was justified in his boasting: about a month later, Indonesian police, assisted by Australian, British and American investigators, had effectively resolved the case.

Unlike the kleptocratic family of the former dictator General Suharto, the first couple does not boast a vast fortune stolen from public funds. Their financial strength springs from a chain of petrol stations given to them by Suharto in the vain hope of keeping them out of politics. Anything but distracted, however, Taufik used the cash generated - about £126,000 a month - to finance the grassroots opposition movement against the regime.

At the same time, he convinced a diffident Megawati, the daughter of Indonesia's independence leader Sukarno, that being president was her birthright, carefully cultivating the Sukarno mythology which he so adored. The unambitious Megawati was 40 years old and a contented housewife when Taufik tapped her for a role in politics.

Now a member of parliament, he heads the leading faction of Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle. From this platform, he has established a network of alliances to influence crucial parliamentary committees and ministries; including the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency which was set up to seize all state assets after the financial crisis of the late-1990s and effectively controls the economy.

More recently, Taufik has been plotting his wife's re-election in 2004. Last year, it was the pragmatic and astute husband who attempted to mend relations with Abdurrahman Wahid, the blind cleric under whom Megawati served as vice-president and - guided by Taufik - outmanoeuvred for the presidency in 2001. Crucially, Wahid remains an influential figure of the Nahdlatul Ulama, the country's biggest Muslim organisation, and, thus, an important electoral constituency for Megawati.

After a generation of one-party rule under the Suhartos, Indonesians expect their leaders to be corrupt. But Taufik dismisses suggestions that he is a crony capitalist. Rather, he seems to relish the black arts of politics more as a sport than as a means of personal enrichment. And as a weary Indonesia struggles to become a normal state, this may well be its best hope.