Vaudine England, Jakarta – The most open secret in Jakarta's murky political world is about the meeting which presidential frontrunner Megawati Sukarnoputri had with chairman of the ruling Golkar party, Akbar Tanjung.
Sources say a deal was struck at the meeting on Tuesday night which would still give the presidency to Ms Megawati, in co-operation with the wing of Golkar which is aligned with Mr Akbar.
The deal involved Ms Megawati's party – the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle – giving support to Mr Akbar in his bid for the Speaker's post in the House of Representatives (DPR), a commitment which came to pass with his successful election.
"Now the idea is that Akbar supports Megawati for president so long as he can become vice-president, but we'll have to see if the deal lasts the next one-and-a-half weeks," a political source said.
The spoiler could be the now-formal presidential nomination of Abdurrahman Wahid, known as Gus Dur, by his own National Awakening Party (PKB) and by Amien Rais of the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the Justice Party (PK) – two members of the Axis Force, a grouping of Islamist parties.
Time will tell if Gus Dur as presidential candidate is the dark horse, or a Trojan horse who will split the PKB and the wider Islamist constituency in his unlikely bid for power.
The deal is based on the assumption that there remains a widespread popular expectation that Ms Megawati should be president because her party won a plurality in the June general elections.
At the same time, the way in which Mr Amien and Mr Akbar have swayed votes their way to secure the Speaker's jobs in the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) and the DPR respectively heralds a new era in Indonesian politics.
These men and the hardened politicians behind them appear eager to assert a new dynamism in a parliament which was but a rubber-stamp under former president Suharto – with a concomitant weakening of the office of president.
Ms Megawati's weaknesses would fit this notion of a more symbolic presidency, leaving the running of the country to an emboldened parliament.
Alternatively, some sources suggest that part of Gus Dur's appeal is his physical frailty, which opens possibilities for more change at the top before the end of his first five-year term.
Of further interest is the fact that it is a faction of Golkar which is now a key actor in the post-Suharto era due to the adept politicking of Mr Akbar and ally Marzuki Darusman. Similarly, the military's block of votes are not crucial to the numbers game if Ms Megawati and Golkar can stay good friends.