On the face of it, there is something extraordinary about the Indonesian and Filipino presidential races. The two incumbents, born less than four months apart, grew up in presidential palaces, where their respective fathers lost power in the same year, 1965. They have ruled or reigned in the two largest archipelagos - both of which are peopled by Malay stock, speaking closely related languages. They also are both women. Although both are presidential incumbents, they are running their first national and popular electoral race for the top job. And they have husbands who have very particular similarities - that have got both into trouble.
And there the similarities end. The real differences underscore the problem of projecting overarching similarities - race and gender, for example. It is the same fallacy as saying all Arabs (or Chinese) are the same. The contrasts between the two women far outweigh their similarities.
Megawati Sukarnoputri, the eldest daughter of the charismatic nationalist founding president of Indonesia, reigns more than rules. She is both sarcastically and fondly referred to as 'Ibu Ibu' (housewife) for her celebrated tendency to pass tea and cookies to ambassadors warning her of terrorist attacks or ministers giving her bad news. Her work habits, not to put too fine a point on it, do not inspire confidence. The fact of a new constitutional provision that a presidential candidate must have a high school diploma is a peculiar way of noting that the republic's president has that and no more.
She and her party came to power after the impeachment of her incompetent predecessor, Abdurrahman Wahid, in 2001, after a period of stasis in national politics. Her husband, Taufiq Kiemas, has been busy indeed, his footprints visible in most major business deals - and, so it is alleged, his own hands in investors' pockets.
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the diminutive daughter of a reformer and nationalist president, Diosdado Macapagal - defeated for re-election by Ferdinand Marcos - in contrast has a PhD in economics from the University of the Philippines and a degree from Georgetown University, where she was a classmate of former US president Bill Clinton.
She was elected vice-president when the appallingly corrupt and incompetent Joseph Estrada was elected, in 1998. When an also corrupt senate failed to impeach him, the people took to the streets, the military withdrew its support, and the chief justice swore in Mrs Arroyo. Her husband, Mike, a large Chinese landowner, has also been active in national business affairs. It is widely believed that one of his many indiscretions led her to renounce a re-election bid at the end of 2002, a decision she subsequently reversed last year.