Indonesia's Megawati kicks off re-election campaign

JAKARTA - Indonesia's president launched her re-election bid on Monday by pledging to create new jobs while fighting graft and terrorism and making sure the government keeps functioning during a long election cycle.

However, Megawati Sukarnoputri -- stealing a march on her rivals a day before the campaign officially starts -- sidestepped questions at a rare news conference about whether she deserved the job or believed she could beat the frontrunner, former chief security minister and ex-general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

The world's most populous Muslim nation holds its first direct presidential election on July 5, with opinion polls showing Yudhoyono has a big lead over Megawati and his other main rival, former armed forces chief Wiranto.

"We have recorded plenty of achievements compared to the previous administration," Megawati told a packed news conference in the front yard of her official residence, flanked by her running mate, respected Muslim leader Hasyim Muzadi.

In an economic blueprint issued at the conference, Megawati promised to create 12.7 million new jobs, halve the poverty rate and appoint half a million new teachers.

Asked if she could beat Yudhoyono, who quit her cabinet in March after a row over his presidential ambitions, Megawati appeared irritated by the question and replied:

"To win or lose is normal."

She denied her government had not been serious in tackling Indonesia's endemic corruption, a major obstacle to foreign investment, and urged the media to check with the Attorney General's office on all the cases it was handling.

Many credit Megawati with restoring stability to Indonesia, but critics say she has done little to eradicate graft or raise incomes in a country where half the population of 220 million lives on less than US$2 a day.

Opinion polls show Yudhoyono winning 40 per cent of the July vote, way ahead of Megawati or Wiranto, nominee of Golkar, once the party of former autocrat Suharto. All three candidates are secular-nationalists. Two other contenders are in the race.

If no candidate wins a majority, there will be a runoff in September. The new president will take office in October.

Indonesia's election season began with parliamentary polls in April. That long cycle and the resignations of several senior ministers such as Yudhoyono have raised concerns about the cabinet's cohesion and heightened political uncertainty.

Muzadi, chairman of Indonesia's largest Muslim group, the 40-million-strong Nahdlatul Ulama, insisted Indonesia was serious about fighting terror, but said it would be done within the law.

He pointed to the prosecution of 30 Islamic militants over the October 2002 Bali bomb attacks, which killed 202 people, mainly foreign tourists. Police have blamed South-East Asia's Jemaah Islamiah, a network linked to al Qaeda, for the attack.

Golkar and Megawati's party came first and second in the parliamentary election, winning 23 per cent and 20 per cent of the seats, respectively. Yudhoyono's party won 10 per cent.

However, Yudhoyono, popular for his calm leadership, has seized the mantle of presidential frontrunner, enticing Indonesians with his promise of firm and clean rule.

Analysts expect Yudhoyono to take a firmer approach to pushing through reforms, as opposed to Megawati who has ruled passively and rarely addressed controversial issues in public.

The end of Suharto's authoritarian rule in 1998 ushered in a fractured democracy with dozens of parties and a parliament where none has a majority.

- REUTERS