Two days after the attack on her party's Jakarta headquarters, Megawati Sukarnoputri talked with TIME Hong Kong bureau chief Sandra Burton, correspondent John Colmey and reporter Michael Shari at her home in a rural district outside the city. Excerpts from the interview:

TIME: We're surprised to find that you are free.

Megawati: I am not free.

TIME: Are the authorities keeping you at home?

Megawati: No. My members will not let me go out, because they are afraid something will happen to me.

TIME: Who took to the streets? Were they your supporters? Were they organized?

Megawati: It was mixed. Some were my supporters or sympathizers, and some were just common people. I never went outside my house, so I did not see them, but I think they were uncontrolled.

TIME: Why, from what we observed during much of the rioting, were the police just standing by?

Megawati: I am surprised. The authority over a public situation must be under the police, especially if there is a very critical point. In my opinion, this was really a spontaneous act. Because, as you must know, many people are dissatisfied at the gap between rich and poor, which is growing wider. TIME: But these were middle-class people.

Megawati: The middle class there is the lowest middle class, which is close to the poor class.

TIME: What if the government blames your party for the rioting?

Megawati: I would say that I never condoned such illegal action. This is my creed, that I don't want violence, because I believe my country has a rule of law. If you remember my first press conference in June, I told my supporters, "Please don't be violent." So what happened in my headquarters?

TIME: Look at this list [of names cited by the government as communist-related groups and individuals responsible for Saturday's violence].

Megawati: I've seen this before. The government uses it as a threat.

TIME: They say that you are being infiltrated and used by these groups.

Megawati: I've never heard of most of these names. At my June press conference, I said if there are communists in my party, just give the list to me as chairperson. But as of today I don't have any names.

TIME: Well, here they are.

Megawati: P.R.D. I recognize this one. From June, when [my party's] congress was happening, they have given me support. So I have only known them for two months. TIME: There are allegations that they were using your Free Speech Movement as a cover.

Megawati: I opened the movement to give people a place to have their expression--so everybody can talk there, and if someone discredited the government, why weren't they arrested? I think this is really only a threat from the police.

TIME: How will you get your message out?

Megawati: The journalists are very sympathetic to me, but the major newspapers are under pressure and near to bending. And if you run this in your magazine, goodness me! But just do it, because this is so unfair. Because we have our rights, especially freedom of the press.

TIME: Is anyone trying to get you and Surjadi, your replacement as party chairman, to work out a compromise?

Megawati: Yes, but this has not happened yet. The process was going on until the attack at the headquarters. Now the time for dialogue is passed.

TIME: What can you do next?

Megawati: I am still a member of parliament. I still have a right to give my opinion before I am recalled.

TIME: Will you run in the next election?

Megawati: I don't have any answer at this moment, because I think my main duty is to find these missing people. We don't know exactly how many are dead and how many have been wounded or arrested by the authorities.

TIME: The government says 171 were arrested.

Megawati: But that's what the government said. TIME: Are there more?

Megawati: Of course, yes, if you count the number of my people inside the headquarters at that time at about 250. Only several have come back.

TIME: Are you looking at the next election or at a more distant horizon?

Megawati: I cannot think just about the election now. I must think about the headquarters and what will happen there. Also, I have people from the provinces asking me how is the situation in Jakarta, because there is intimidation beginning in the provinces.

TIME: Are you thinking short term or long term?

Megawati: It must be according to the situation. Some of the families who are missing people are coming here to find out if I know where they are. This is a fast-changing situation. You should watch it very closely.