Megawati offers a rude goodbye

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She rode into office three years ago on a wave of public adoration and high expectations, but as the sun sets on her troubled administration, Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri is being publicly derided as "ignorant and spiteful".

With just two days to go before Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is sworn in as Indonesia's sixth president, the camera-shy Megawati has yet to concede defeat in the country's first direct presidential elections.

She is refusing to meet with her successor and now appears unlikely to attend his swearing-in ceremony.

More troubling for many observers have been the costly and politically troublesome decisions and appointments she has made in the weeks before Wednesday's official inauguration ceremony.

al Jazeera