Early Life
Megawati was born in Yogyakarta to Sukarno, who had declared Indonesia's independence from the Netherlands in 1945 and Fatmawati, one of his nine wives. Megawati was Sukarno's second child and first daughter. She grew up in her father's Merdeka Palace. She danced for her father's guests and developed a gardening hobby. Megawati was 19 when her father relinquished power in 1966 and was succeeded by a government which eventually came to be led by President Suharto. Sukarno's family was pushed into the background by the new government and stayed out of politics.
Megawati attended Padjadjaran University in Bandung to study agriculture but dropped out in 1967 to be with her father following his fall. In 1970, the year her father died, Megawati went to the University of Indonesia to study psychology but dropped out after two years. She is a practising Muslim but also follows traditional Javanese beliefs.
Read more about this topic: Megawati Sukarnoputri
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