Megawati

Diah Permata Megawati Setiawati Sukarnoputri (Indonesian: [meɡawati sukarnɔputri] ^ⓘ; born 23 January 1947) is an Indonesian politician who served as the fifth president of Indonesia from 2001 to 2004. She previously served as the eighth vice president from 1999 to 2001.

Megawati is Indonesia's first and to date only female president^[2] and the sixth woman to lead a Muslim-majority country. She is also the first Indonesian president and as of 2023 the only vice president to be born after Indonesia proclaimed its independence in 1945. After serving as vice president to Abdurrahman Wahid, Megawati became president when Wahid was removed from office in 2001. She ran for re-election in the 2004 presidential election, but was defeated by Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. She ran again in the 2009 presidential election, but Yudhoyono defeated her for a second time.

Megawati was instrumental in creating the Corruption Eradication Commission, an agency task to combatting corruption in Indonesia. She also set up a general election system for the first time, in which the Indonesian people can directly elect the president and vice president, in addition to electing candidates for the legislature. As a result, she was given the title "Mother of Upholding the Constitution".^[3]

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.

Her 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.^[4][5]