"We are the ones we've been waiting for." The prophetic Hopi line may be popularized by Obama, but it's what Megawati's camp wished to tell the Indonesian people with recent insinuations, quite publicly, that she ran for president with Meuthia Hatta, the daughter of her father's co-signatory of the Proclamation of Independence. Together they will recreate history.

Never mind that the Dutch and the Japanese, from whom Indonesia declared independence 63 years ago, are no longer around. The second round of Soekarno-Hatta duet is designed not to free the nation from foreign conquerors, but to help Megawati reconquer the nation's top political position.

People say, love is blind. Megawati's top aides in the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) seem to be in a mood for romanticism that prevent them from seeing the absurdity, if not farce, in the pairing. They see a nation ready to be recaptivated by a charismatic twosome, when many see a desperate attempt to recapture the magic in the name "Sukarno-Hatta."

And who else but women are to be the object of this illusory affection? The pairing of Megawati and Meuthia, who is the current Minister of Women's Empowerment, is calculated to appeal to female electorates. So not only because they have the DNAs of the founding fathers, they also have the right gender to lead the country. At least Megawati believes so.

Back in November, speaking to women in Rembang, she equated governing the state with running a household. "Men have no idea how to manage a household. They can't tell chilly pepper [from] shrimp paste, salted fish, and generally ask to be served." She had lost in the previous election, Megawati concluded, because housewives didn't vote for a housewife -- "They voted for a man."

Forget the incongruous analogy, this desperate housewife was essentially saying, "Vote for me because I'm a woman." Hillary Clinton could only wish she had equally charitable audience. While Hillary never wants to be seen playing the gender card, Megawati has no other cards but gender and genes.

If Megawati ever needs a theme song for her campaign, I'm recommending Edwin McCain's The Kitchen Song, or Alice Cooper's Hallowed Be My Name. If she thinks she needs to court younger voters who aren't fawning over daddy's name, she can try Beyonce's Me, Myself and I.

Of late, the former First Daughter and 5th President of Indonesia has attempted explicit parallels between her and her father. A little over a month ago she was criticized for making stinging remarks on the current thin-skinned administration. In one of her rallies in Lampung, Megawati defended her remarks as merely passing on what she had heard from the people.

"I had dialogues with the people on their current situation. Everyone says life's hard. Not one said, it isn't difficult. This isn't me saying." People in Lampung, Megawati told reporters, asked for affordable prices of basic commodities. But since she was not in charge of the government, she could only promise to pass on their grievances to those in charge.

Like her father, Megawati sees herself as "the extension of the people's tongue" -- one of few self-aggrandizing designations Soekarno adopted for himself when running the country.

Too bad the reporters failed to ask why "the extension of the people's tongue no. 2" was tongue-tied for most of her term as president.

Perhaps because at that time the presidential throne came by rather easy. Her party had symbolized resistance against the hugely unpopular Soeharto, and it was almost natural to rally behind a namesake of Soekarno, from whom Soeharto had wrested power over three decades earlier.

So the crown was simply being returned to the rightful owner. She only needed to be herself -- daughter of Soekarno -- to become president. You can say, tongue-in-cheek, it's in her genes. She didn't need to speak to anyone she didn't wish to speak to, especially reporters.

But somewhere along the way, after continuing hardship and mounting corruption at all levels of government, this pedigree thing lost its magic. Indonesians ceased to be enamored by the grand family name, and, worse, economically desperate housewives flung themselves into affair with a military guy. They didn't vote for fellow housewife, they voted for him.

PDI-P in fact has choices of fresh and promising bulls to ride on in the upcoming presidential election. Alas, they ran on Soekarno's legacy and now find themselves stuck with his daughter. This one bull sits at the top of the party hierarchy and won't budge -- she wants another shot at the presidency. She holds fast to another saying of the Hopi Indian elders, one which even Barack Obama wouldn't dare quoting -- "Do not look outside yourself for the leader."

To indulge her, her backers suggested plunging deeper into history -- a repeat of Soekarno-Hatta, in feminine form. Instead of moving forward, the party is going backward. It was propelled to prominence by the weight of the past, but now the past is weighing it down.

They may or may not be the ones we've been waiting for. Truth is, Megawati had her chance as leader, but the people has moved on.