Wahid beat long odds just to get where he is. Only two weeks ago, popular opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri seemed a shoo-in to win the presidential election in Indonesia’s People’s Consultative Assembly. But the 52-year-old daughter of Sukarno, Indonesia’s first president, refused to strike the necessary political deals, especially with Muslim-based parties. Fearing that her failure to build solid alliances could prove divisive if she won, Wahid decided to run against her.
Like his late father and grandfather, both revered Indonesian religious leaders, Wahid has a reputation as a sage. Even now, Wahid’s grandfather is believed to be able to bless people from beyond the grave, and the new president himself is widely thought to have supernatural powers. Wahid wasted little time putting his considerable wiles, in any case, to work: Instead of gloating over his victory, he sensibly engineered Megawati’s appointment as his vice president.
The election was widely seen as an auspicious turn of events for a country of 220 million that has endured two years of uncertainty and turmoil. News of the new government sparked an initial wave of market euphoria: The battered rupiah strengthened 12 percent against the dollar, and the stock market surged 10 percent before settling a little lower. Yet Wahid inherits a country plagued by religious and ethnic differences, where two separatist movements are active and corruption is endemic. Some wonder whether he’ll have the energy to grapple with all of that. At 59, he suffers from diabetes and kidney disease, and has been seriously weakened by two strokes. He cannot walk without assistance, and he tires easily. But that’s not all bad, Wahid jokes: no longer will Indonesians have to suffer through long-winded presidential speeches. And when he does have something to say, his fluency in English, Arabic, German, Indonesian and Bahasa Indonesian–his country’s official language–will help him get the message out. “He’s a unifier, an open-minded moderate and a pluralist,” says veteran politician Marzuki Darusman. “He’s a miracle.” Wahid might humbly disagree. But in a country that has seen much tyranny and bombast, that’s probably his most endearing quality.
