“What Do I Lack as a Woman?”: The Rhetoric of Megawati Sukarnoputri

Abstract

After serving as Indonesia's first female president from 2001 to 2004, Megawati Sukarnoputri remains one of Indonesia's most influential politicians. However, Indonesian rhetoric in general and Megawati's rhetoric in particular have been largely inaccessible to Western rhetorical scholarship because of barriers in language and culture. This essay extends scholarly access to Megawati's rhetoric by transcribing, translating, and evaluating key portions of her May 27, 2014 address at the Rakernas Partai Nasdem (National Democratic Parties Convention). Contextualized within the Indonesian political-rhetorical situation, Megawati's rhetoric embodies the necessity of paradox for negotiating identity as a powerful woman within a historically androcentric system.