Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T08:18:34.825Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - Megawati Sukarnoputri: “Limbuk Becomes Queen”

from Part III - Contemporary Queens: Institutionalization of Succession

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2020

Shahla Haeri
Affiliation:
Boston University
Get access

Summary

This chapter highlights the life and leadership of Megawati Sukarnoputri, who became the first modern Muslim woman head of the state. The eldest daughter of Sukarno, Indonesia’s national hero, Megawati emerged as a leader at a time when Indonesian society was in the grips of social and political crises. Her swift rise to power unsettled powerful men, who belittled her as only a “housewife,” and perceived her political campaigning as disruptive and subversive. Fearing rapid loss of his legitimacy, the dictator Suharto made political alliances with hardline Islamist parties to prevent Megawati’s presidential campaign. But he failed spectacularly to stop her or to dampen her public support. I discuss the intense political rivalry over the presidency following Suharto’s fall, and the appeal to the Prophetic hadith to disqualify Megawati. It became clear that it was not genuine religious conviction that sought to block a woman’s political advancement, but the intense anxiety of the male political elite whose political dominance was in jeopardy. She was neither a “stupid housewife” nor did her leadership doom Indonesia. She turned out to be a canny politician: calm and unpretentious, the likes of whom Indonesia had not seen before.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Unforgettable Queens of Islam
Succession, Authority, Gender
, pp. 183 - 218
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×