Jakarta – President Megawati Soekarnoputri joked about her age as she celebrated her birthday on Friday with hundreds of workers at the Jababeka industrial zone in Bekasi, West Java, some 40 kilometers east of Jakarta, as well as local university students and residents. "I have yet to turn 57. I am only 27 plus," she quipped.

Among those attending the occasion were State Minister for State Enterprises Laksamana Sukardi and Minister of Manpower Jacob Nuwa Wea. The President handed out presents to 5,000 industrial zone workers and children from nearby orphanages.

Born in Yogyakarta on January 23, 1947, the president, whose full name is Diah Permata Megawati Setiawati Soekarnoputri, is the second daughter of Indonesia's founding president Sukarno. She succeeded Abdurrahman Wahid as the country's fifth president on July 23, 2001. She was Wahid's vice president before his ouster.

Although she failed to complete her agricultural degree at Padjadjaran University in Bandung or her psychology degree at the University of Indonesia, Megawati received an honorary degree from Japan's Waseda University in 2001 and another from a Russian university in 2003.

She is married to Taufik Kiemas, with whom she has a daughter. She has two sons from a previous marriage to an Air Force officer, who died while on duty in Biak, Papua, in 1971.