Megawati enters palace - at last

Megawati has been in no rush to return to the palace

By Richard Galpin in Jakarta

Indonesia's new leader, Megawati Sukarnoputri, has moved into the presidential palace in Jakarta, exactly two weeks after being sworn in.

She has begun a round of meetings with presidential advisers and other officials.

The lack of urgency with which she has acted since her predecessor, Abdurrahman Wahid, was impeached last month is already attracting criticism.

Megawati is by nature elusive, conservative and cautious

Megawati was brought up in the palace in Jakarta - her father was Indonesia's founding President Sukarno.

But since taking power last month, she has been in no hurry to return to the place of her childhood.

Instead she has waited for a new office to be set up in a quieter area of the palace grounds.

It is here that she is due to begin work on Monday.

Contrast to Wahid

But she will not be living at the accommodation provided within the palace complex.

Mr Wahid: Outspoken and free thinking

It is expected that in the evenings, she will return to her own home in the capital, unlike Mr Wahid.

And it is not just in these more superficial ways that Megawati is likely to differ from the previous president.

Her whole approach to leading a nation is expected to be radically different.

She is by nature elusive, conservative and cautious.

Her over-riding priority is preserving national integrity, for which the military is expected to play a key role in crushing separatist movements in the provinces of Aceh and Irian Jaya.

As president, Mr Wahid was outspoken, free thinking and instinctively more democratic - at least until he was threatened with impeachment.

Coalition delays

Megawati also seems keen to ensure that she builds a government of national unity, by including most of the main political parties in parliament.

But this has led to a long delay in the appointment of her cabinet, as the parties haggle over positions.

Officials say that it will be the end of this week before Indonesia finally has a new government.

The long delay has already raised concerns about her ability to lead the country at such a critical time.