Megawati means ‘Goddess of the cloud’. Her father Sukarno led Indonesia to independence, and was its first president. When Megawati was nineteen, Sukarno was overthrown by Suharto.
Megawati joined the Indonesian Democratic Party at the age of forty. In the first free parliamentary elections held after Suharto’s resignation, her party won the most votes. She served as vice president. Megawati became president of Indonesia in 2001; the first woman to do so. However, Megawati lost power in the 2004 Presidential election.