"To date I am the only woman in this country who has been a president, and I ask if there will be another woman who can be the future president of this country," Megawati said here in a so-called Presidential Lecture to observe the Pancasila Day at the University of Janabadra (UJB) Yogyakarta on Thursday.
Megawati said she would give her high appreciation to any woman of Indonesia who would be a president in less than next 25 years.
The women, according to her, were not different from men and the only thing the women could do to further surpass the men was through knowledge and intelligence.
"My father, Soekarno, the first president of Indonesia, encouraged the women and raised their spirit to not feel defeated by men," Megawati said.
She also advised the young generation in order to have self confidence so as not to be inferior to other nations in the world, because lack of self confidence would resulted in the defeat of Indonesia in the world competition.
To have self confidence, Megawati said Indonesian women should always hold on to Pancasila as state ideology because it was actually
already in the bosom of the society of Indonesia.
"Pancasile should be implemented in a consequent manner in order that all joints of the national life could run in a sovereign nation, including the politics and economy," Megawati said.
Meanwhile, UJB Rector Suharjanto said all academicians have the responsibility to articulate the people`s desire to move forward on the basis of Pancasila as the answer to the challenges ahead.
"Since the beginning of the reform era, there has been a setback in Pancasila ideology prestige following the increasing world liberalization and democratization," Suharjanto said.(*)
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Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
