Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – The Indonesian media, assessing President Megawati Sukarnoputri's first 100 days in office, said she did not live up to expectations and that her administration was heavy on rhetoric but achieved little.

Three leading publications acknowledged the complexity and scale of economic, political and social problems that she had inherited. "Admittedly, it is premature to pass judgment on Megawati's leadership based on her first 100 days in office," The Jakarta Post said in its editorial yesterday. It said she "could have done much more" since she took over from President Abdurrahman Wahid, who was impeached on July 24.

They rated the steps taken so far to fight corruption and the sluggish pace of economic recovery as unsatisfactory. They also criticised her government's lack of direction and apparent indecisiveness and muted leadership. "She did assert leadership every now and then, but there were many occasions, especially where it counted most, when she failed to come out and show to the nation and the world, that she, and no one else was in command. What the nation saw instead was at times a laid-back leader, who seemed quite content to let her aides take charge, or worse still, let others outside her administration seize the initiative and even take control of the direction in which the nation was heading," said the Post. The Post also criticised her poor handling of the domestic situation following the United States' military campaign on Afghanistan. It said she allowed her ministers to "run the show".

Forum news magazine also compared the Megawati administration to a plane operating on auto-pilot. "When the plane experienced turbulence – like when terrorist groups attacked New York and Washington on September 11 – the Cabinet ministers in the plane were shaken and the pilot woke up briefly, but then the pilot goes back to sleep and lets the plane run on auto pilot again," said the weekly.

Media Indonesia doubted the government's seriousness in fighting graft. The daily said the President did not have the courage to root out graft as shown in the administration's failures so far to prosecute graft cases. "In the 100 days in office, Ms Megawati's government shows the same incapacity in fighting graft that President Abdurrahman Wahid had that led us to remove him," the daily said in an editorial.

But the Post conceded that she had been learning the ropes in her 100 days in office and was optimistic about the future. "Not only does she enjoy the immense goodwill of the nation, we know for a fact that she has the ability to rise to the challenge, as she has proved on several occasions in the past. Now that the learning period is over, let's hope that she will mature in the job quickly."