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Megawati Sukarnoputri

President of Indonesia from 2001 to 2004

  • 21 min read
  • 8 chapters

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Through Indian people

Megawati Sukarnoputri became president in 2001 when Abdurrahman Wahid was impeached and removed from office. She ran for re-election in the 2004 presidential election, but was defeated by Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. She ran again against Yudhoyono in the 2009 presidential election, and was defeated a second time. She is the first and current leader of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), one of Indonesia's largest political parties. She is the eldest daughter of Indonesia's first president, Sukarno.

Name

Megawati's last name (Sukarnoputri, meaning "daughter of Sukarno") is a patronym, not a family name. Javanese often do not have family names, similarly Minang living outside of traditional nagari society often do not carry on matrilineal clan names. She is often referred to as simply Megawati or Mega, derived from Sanskrit meaning 'cloud goddess.' In a speech to the students of the Sri Sathya Sai Primary School, she mentioned that Indian politician Biju Patnaik named her at Sukarno's request.

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