Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri completed a year in power as newspapers in the world's fourth most populous nation gave her a less than flattering report card.

Kompas front-paged its latest opinion poll which it said showed almost 72 percent of the 1,773 people surveyed were dissatisfied with her government. It said the poll conducted last week showed the major letdown was weak efforts to combat corruption and enforce the law.

Another poll by the Detikcom online news service showed 70 percent of 1,000 respondents faulted Megawati's performance.

Megawati, 55, took the helm on July 23, 2001, after parliament's upper house sacked her voluble and erratic predecessor Abdurrahman Wahid following months of political turmoil.

Foreign analysts have credited the famously taciturn Megawati, the daughter of founding president Sukarno, with restoring calm and pushing ahead with economic reforms. Several local analysts accuse her of shelving key political and social reforms.

In stark contrast to her predecessor, Megawati never gives media interviews or individual press conferences, speaks relatively seldom in public and has no official spokesman.

The Jakarta Post said in an editorial her "silence is golden" stance "is a welcome breath of fresh air after the noisy, unpredictable and zig-zag style of government of her predecessor, Abdurrahman Wahid. Her silence may have had a stabilising effect on a jittery economy, as demonstrated by the stronger rupiah and a relatively calm market in the last few months."

But the paper said these developments had raised possibly unrealistic expectations of a speedy answer to the country's prolonged crisis. It added: "The mounting criticism of Megawati, to a certain extent, has been caused by the administration's poor handling of public relations. Governing requires good communication and a lack of it can cause miscommunication and misunderstanding." Megawati, the Post said, "has not tried hard enough to build, maintain or sell a good image as a leader." She had only one item on her agenda Tuesday – attending a ceremony to mark Children's Day.

Koran Tempo newspaper carried an article from William Liddle, a political science professor at Ohio state university, who said Indonesia is now seeing an anti-democracy movement. "In the democratic government of Indonesia, which is still new and vulnerable, a very anti-democratic machine is on the move," Liddle wrote.

He said there was a growing tendency to look for solutions to problems from outside the political scene, as the public appeared fed up with politicians' focus on their struggle for power. He cited the growing number of non-politicians planning to set up new parties and the number of non-politicians touted as potential national leaders. The armed forces had also been revived as a political force, he said.

Pikiran Rakyat newspaper said Megawati had failed to meet the hopes of many – that she work to bridge the gulf between the nationalist factions of which she is a figurehead and the Islamic factions in the world's most populous Muslim nation.