Indonesia's Odd Couple

One is revered and the other popular, but can Wahid and Megawati govern the country?

The blind Muslim cleric stumbled forward and butted the microphone with his head before a minder steadied him. Another aide whispered the presidential oath in his ear as he pretended to read the words out loud from the folder thrust into his hands. It was an awkward beginning in front of the national assembly for Abdurrahman Wahid, a stroke victim who last Wednesday became the first freely elected President of Indonesia. And it was a bitter denouement for Megawati Sukarnoputri, the presumed front runner who had been left sucking for air by a series of political maneuvers she hadn't even seen...

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