Vaudine England – It is well-known that the armed forces of Indonesia have played a murky and repressive role at each vital moment in the country's modern history.

And it is also well-known that Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri is a reformist and popular leader, who grew into politics through her opposition to the military-backed regime of former president Suharto.

So how can it be that these two disparate forces are getting together? That Ms Megawati feels comfortable with Mr Suharto's generals is no longer doubted, however, and the relationship represents an expression of a key strand in Indonesia's political history.

"The official talk denies it, everybody is cautious, but the trend is there," said military analyst Kusnanto Anggoro, of Jakarta's Centre for Strategic and International Studies, when asked about Ms Megawati and her generals. "In the last few months, the military leadership has been trying to approach Megawati and she has been responding to them, in case something should happen." That something could be the early accession to the presidency by Ms Megawati, due to President Abdurrahman Wahid's illness or hypothetical impeachment.

Grand though the talk of reformasi (reform) might be, it is clear the military is around as a political force for some time to come.

But how can Ms Megawati enjoy the courtship of an institution which has so abused her in the past? After all, the armed forces were the willing handmaiden to a nascent Mr Suharto in the mid- 1960s, after relegating her father and founding president Sukarno to ineffectual house arrest while still in office. It was directly involved in the attack on the headquarters of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), led by Ms Megawati, in July 1996. It helped in the killings of activists and students, many of whom were fighting to bring their heroine reformist, Ms Megawati, to power. And it directed the mass rampage in East Timor, earning proud Indonesia international scorn.

"She is beginning to think a bit differently, especially about military politics. She knows quite well that the attack on the PDI headquarters was because of Mr Suharto, not because of the armed forces as an institution. Of course many [senior generals] were involved in the attack, but now most of them are retired or out of her way," Mr Anggoro said. "If there is a rapprochement between [the army and Ms Megawati] this is not a sign of Ms Megawati's insensitivity to the past. It is a tactical alliance. She has no other choice."

One thing she has learned is that she cannot trust the Islamic parties and their leaders, such as Amien Rais. It was the Central Axis coalition of such parties which put Mr Wahid in as president, forcing her to take second place. But there is a lot more to her warm relationship with the military than that.

Once stripped of the reformist wrappings of the anti-Suharto struggle, Ms Megawati remains a genteel reformist, with a strongly conservative bent. She was never an activist, having spent an idyllic childhood in the presidential palace. Her ideology, as such, focuses on preserving her father's legacy.

That means the 1945 constitution which allowed for a strong central power, and the unitary state named Indonesia which her father helped found in 1945.

It includes the parts of Indonesia which came later, such as East Timor (in 1975) and Irian Jaya (1969). Her supporters call her the "Mother of the Nation". Though urban intellectuals backed her, her mass base among the "little people" rests on the symbolism of being Sukarno's daughter, a throwback to the now mythologised days of national unity and pride.

Such a curriculum vitae could not be better from the military's point of view. Here is a vast mass of popular support with the right pedigree, whose own ideas so closely match their own.

"Both are real nationalists," said Mr Anggoro, in a country where nationalism means national unity, not a breakup into smaller nations. "The armed forces are unhappy with Mr Wahid, partly because he doesn't perform, and partly because there's too much Islamic influence. This is the ideological perspective." In turn, Ms Megawati has expressed frustration at her limited role in government despite Mr Wahid's promise to delegate, describing early on in her job how she felt "like a waste basket".

Despite a national requirement for all Indonesians to have faith in God, the state her father founded was a so-called "secular nationalist" state – and that is the way Ms Megawati and much of the old elite prefer it. This simplistic equation of politics – between secular nationalism and state Islam – helped keep Mr Suharto in office so long as he too represented the secular nationalist stream which Western funders prefer.

No matter what image one has of Ms Megawati at different moments, her political function these days seems to be to represent that same old-fashioned secular nationalist line – and the men in uniform love it. The leadership now settling in after the latest reshuffle represents a suave but not particularly reformist elite.

With human-rights prosecutions threatening and funding dependent on private business more than official support, the armed forces have been riding rough new waves. A reversion to basic values, namely holding on to the nation state, may be one way to restore dignity.

"Now we are witnessing many regions demanding to secede from the state in an effort to deal with the multi-dimensional crisis. Therefore, I call on the people to share a united vision on national integrity and to eliminate their vested interests," new army chief General Endriartono Sutarto said recently.

"All Indonesian people have to possess and demonstrate a high spirit of nationalism and have healthy souls that will never support national disintegration ... As long as the Government works for the sake of the interests of the entire nation and people, we must be loyal. The most important thing is that what's best for this nation will be best for TNI [the armed forces]," he said.

That's fine by Ms Megawati. She has lent her elusive voice to army-backed moves to get a new security bill passed in parliament. She has joined the constituency which believes the American embargo on military supplies is partly responsible for fuelling chaos around the archipelago, rather than it being a reaction to the cruelty. And she has spoken about the need for Indonesians to stand up to outside pressure.

"We see as an irony that friendly countries, which have urged us to continue in our endeavours to advance and protect our people's human rights, are concurrently enforcing an embargo of supplies, means of mobility and the minimum equipment needed. This kind of policy allows social horizontal conflicts to be rampant, with all of the saddening consequences," she said.

Armed-forces commander Admiral Widodo Adi Sudjipto and territorial affairs chief Lieutenant-General Agus Widjoyo are leading calls for a re-examination of Mr Wahid's tolerance towards restive regions, arguing for emergency status in order to quell rebellion. Here too, Ms Megawati's heart is with the army, to defend her father's nation state. Some Western diplomats fear that if Ms Megawati comes to power sooner rather than later, even East Timor's integrity as an independent state may be at risk, although her allies point out she has accepted East Timor's vote.

Ms Megawati's friendships are most obvious with the strand of professional officers keen on adjusting, albeit as little as possible, to the newly open political environment, men such as generals Widjoyo and Sutarto. These men are not reformists in any civilian understanding of the word, but they are smart enough to see the need for adjustment in a post-Suharto world.

Some analysts like to link such men to the former armed forces chief General Wiranto but others demur, noting Ms Megawati has long been able to speak personally with General Wiranto without intermediaries. "It is wrong to conclude Wiranto is using Widjoyo to reach Megawati," Mr Anggoro said.

Personal ties are what matter, and General Widjoyo's father-in-law was a leader in the former Indonesian Nationalist Party (PNI), whose guiding light was Ms Megawati's father. Other friendly generals such as the retired Theo Syafei are close to a much earlier armed forces chief, Benny Murdani. But thoughts of conspiracy there should be treated with similar caution. "Benny is really quite frail since his stroke," Mr Anggoro said. "I expect people are using his name, but I don't think he's personally involved." He added: "The military still gets involved in politics, of course, but now the relationships are more person-to-person. It's not on an institutional basis but a personal connection."

Indeed, Ms Megawati has gone out of her way to cheer up the troops. She has visited two feared bodies, Kopassus special forces and Kostrad Army Strategic Command. She wore army fatigues, participated in parades, rode on heavy equipment, and delivered homilies on the need for self-respect and the duty to protect the nation. "It will be more important for you to develop a sense of belonging to your corps and your nation in such a way that will help you with your duties in securing our respected and beloved country," she said at the closing ceremonies of a Kostrad training camp in Cipatat, Bandung.

Her name was also linked to the petition of 45 generals led by former army chief Tyasno Sudarto, who opposed Mr Wahid's attempt to promote the high-profile reformist General Agus Wirahadikusumah. But she also told General Sutarto, who got the job, not to pursue prosecution of General Agus for allegedly exposing the army's dirty linen in public. She seems to want a united institution on her side, not a fractious collection of bitter men.

The people most worried about Ms Megawati's generals are the very reformists who first helped make her a leading opposition icon. They fear a resurgent armed forces, the likelihood of amnesty for generals in relation to serious rights abuses, and even a puppet presidency unable to withstand military manipulation. The challenge, a range of local voices agree, is for civilian politicians to learn their job properly in order to withstand the persistent wooing from the men in uniform.

As if aware of the question mark, Ms Megawati admits her leadership might be doubted. "I may give the impression of being weak, but everybody in the party knows I can be very tough when I am angry," she said.

Given that idealist students literally risked their lives to support Ms Megawati and to get the military out of politics, the new ties are turning some stomachs. Depending on one's point of view, the turnaround reflects how flexible and realistic, or how utterly compromised, the reformist agenda is.

And it highlights the conundrum that perhaps democracy and national unity don't always go together. That idea presents real difficulties for progressive circles in Indonesia, who still want their much-loved country to exist but fear the price.