Everyone has the right to be rich. But in Indonesia, the source of many people's wealth has become a sensitive issue, especially when it happens to be the president or her husband who is under the spotlight.

That's why suspicion arose when the mass media reported that President Megawati Sukarnoputri owns at least three houses, when she had only listed one – at Kabagusan, a leafy retreat behind the Jakarta zoo – on her declaration to the Public Servants' Wealth Audit Commission (KPKPN).

A second house at Gunung Geulis in Bogor was not reported to KPKPN. It is said to be owned by Taufik Kiemas, though the title is in the name of Megawati's daughter, Puan Maharani.

The third, at Batu Tulis, also in Bogor regency, was not reported because Megawati believes that since it had belonged to her father, Sukarno, it would be of no interest to the commission.

The house had been confiscated by Suharto and it was only with the accession of Abdurrahman Wahid to the presidency that it was returned to the family.

So far so good. Then came the revelations that Megawati had taken up weekend residence at another mansion, in the Sentul hills south of Jakarta. Newspaper reports quoted locals describing what the President did when she visited, with fishing in the mansion's well-stocked pond a favorite pursuit.

The house, located in the Babakan Madang district of Bogor on about 6000 square meters of land by having five main bedrooms and a swimming pool, spurred KPKPN to further investigate.

When the clamor showed no signs of receding, Megawati's party and cabinet colleague, National Development Minister Kwik Kian Gie owned up that it was really his family's house and that Megawati was only visiting. The story raised more eyebrows about the behavior of the first family.

Most attention has focused on presidential husband Taufik Kiemas, who got mighty upset to the press coverage, blaming the media for acting like terrorists.

Megawati herself drew public attention to the potential for swilling at the sty by members of her family soon after she took office. In July 2001, Megawati publicly warned her family not to duplicate the Suharto family. As president, she said, she was committed to rooting out corruption at all levels of government.

The early days of her presidency offered promise that she meant what she said. She pushed through the case against Golkar chairman Akbar Tanjung over his now-proven misuse of Rp40 billion of National Logistics Agency (Bulog) funds meant for the stomachs of the poor.

And, she brought Suharto's most beloved son, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, to court for ordering the murder of the judge who refused his appeal on an earlier corruption charge.

Almost directly opposed, at least in the public's eye, to Megawati's stand against corruption is her own husband.

Kiemas emerged for the first time as a significant figure in January 2002 when he handed over 21 cars to Jakarta's police force for use in escorting visiting diplomatic delegations.

He explained that he had been embarrassed to see the battered fleet of patrol cars that were being used and felt compelled to donate 17 new Hyundai cars. As a personal donation, the gift unavidably provoked criticism from the public and the parliament.

Anti-graft groups condemned the gift, complaining that it looked like an effort by Kiemas to ingratiate himself and his friends with the police, perhaps as an inducement to look the other way if they ever got into trouble.

Kiemas himself insisted he had no reason to feel guilty. "I am aware that people would perceive that," Kiemas told reporters. "The return I expect for this gift is that these cars will be available to guard the President and Vice President, They will be on time and no longer late. [In a way, it's for] my personal safety."

Kiemas is also believed to see State Secretary Bambang Kesowo as guilty of having been used by Megawati to block business delegations. These delegations, palace sources state, have won Kiemas' ear in seeking protection for their operations.

Kiemas therefore started to push his wife to sack the experienced State Secretary. Backed by his faction in the Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Kiemas lobbied to have Kesowo replaced with his own political protigi and ex Golkar party cadre, Tjahyo Kumolo.

There is no argument that Kesowo's past easily places him as a Suharto left-over – he used to write much of Suharto's law and was closely linked to the State Secretary of the time, Moerdiono. And for Kiemas, there was no doubt that he was an obstructing factor in gaining access to the president.

Kiemas has long-standing ties to several businessmen who are still in negotiations with the government over the repayment of billions of dollars they owe stemming from the 1997 financial crisis.

Many of these businessmen amassed their fortunes in part by exploiting their links to the Suharto's family, and some government officials fear they are trying to exert the same sway over Megawati through Kiemas.

Chinese tycoon Syamsul Nursalim is a case in point. Kiemas has made no secret of a close friendship with Jakob Nursalim, a nephew of the failed banker, who is now in Singapore.

A long-time associate of Suharto, Nursalim is locked in a battle with the government through the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA), over his failure to repay the government about $2.7 billion. As a four-year repayment deadline was about to expire, IBRA, at the time still under Putu Ari Suta, proposed extending the term of the debt six more years rather than take legal action to recover the money.

The plan generated a damaging political backlash, with critics shouting that it was a sweetheart deal for Nursalim. Under strong pressure from the public, the plan was scrapped by Megawati.

Kiemas's business operations and his network to businessmen like Nursalim raises the potential for conflict of interest. Jakob Nursalim has accompanied Kiemas on officials trips to the US and China, including a visit by Megawati to Washington immediately after the September 11 attacks.

In December 2001, just four months after Megawati became president, Kiemas also provoked critical public reaction when Indonesia sent a diplomatic mission to China to lobby for a crucial natural gas supply contract. Instead of the energy or trade ministers, it was Kiemas who led the delegation as "government envoy".

Critics saw Kiemas as entirely suited, and without any authority, to head a mission whose main task was to hold talks with Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji to negotiate a $13 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) deal between the two countries.

The presence of the man known as RI3 at the head of the delegation undermined the credibility of Megawati at home and abroad. The move was also miscalculated, as the Chinese government indicated it saw his presence as undiplomatic.

It is impossible to state what effect the slip had on the final result, but Indonesia lost the 25-year contract to Australia.

Small wonder that many political analysts continue to predict that the man known by cynics as Indonesia's Mr. Bhutto – after the former Pakistan Prime Minister's husband – remains a major liability for the remainder of the presidency.