Suharto
2ndPresident of Indonesia
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In office
27 March 1968 – 21 May 1998 |
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Vice President
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Hamengkubuwono
IX
Adam Malik Umar Wirahadikusumah Sudharmono Try Sutrisno BacharuddinJusufHabibie |
Preceded by
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Sukarno
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Succeeded by
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BacharuddinJusufHabibie
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16th Secretary General of Non-Aligned Movement
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In office
7 September 1992 – 20 October 1995 |
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Preceded by
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DobricaĆosić
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Succeeded by
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Ernesto Samper
Pizano
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4th Indonesian Armed Forces Commander
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In office
1969–1973 |
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Preceded by
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Abdul
HarisNasution
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Succeeded by
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MaradenPanggabean
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8th Indonesian Army Chief of Staff
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In office
1965–1967 |
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Preceded by
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PranotoReksosamudra
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Succeeded by
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MaradenPanggabean
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1st Armed Force and
Strategic Reserve (KOSTRAD) Commander
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In office
1961–1965 |
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Preceded by
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Position created
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Succeeded by
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Umar
Wirahadikusumah
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Personal details
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Born
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8 June 1921
Kemusuk, Dutch East Indies |
Died
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27 January 2008
(aged 86)Jakarta, Indonesia |
Nationality
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Indonesian
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Political party
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Golkar
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Spouse(s)
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SitiHartinah (d. 1996)
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Children
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SitiHardiyantiHastuti
SigitHarjojudanto BambangTrihatmodjo SitiHediyatiHariyadi Hutomo Mandala Putra SitiHutamiEndangAdiningsih |
Profession
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Military
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Religion
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Islam
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Signature
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Suharto (8
June 1921 – 27 January 2008) was the second President of Indonesia, having held the office for 31 years
from 1967 following Sukarno's removal until his resignation in
1998.
Suharto was born in a small village, Kemusuk, in the
Godean area near Yogyakarta, during the Dutch colonial
era. He grew up in humble circumstances.
His Javanese
peasant parents divorced not long after his birth, and he was passed between
foster parents for much of his childhood. During the Japanese occupation of Indonesia, Suharto served in Japanese-organised
Indonesian security forces. Indonesia's independence struggle saw him joining the newly formed
Indonesian army. Suharto rose to the rank of Major General following Indonesian
independence. An attempted coup on 30 September 1965 was countered by
Suharto-led troops and was blamed on the Indonesian Communist Party. The army subsequently
led an anti-communist purge, and Suharto wrested power from Indonesia's founding president, Sukarno.
He was appointed acting president in 1967 and President the following year.
Support for Suharto's presidency was strong throughout the 1970s and 1980s but
eroded following a severe financial crisis that led to widespread unrest and his resignation in May 1998. Suharto died in 2008.
The legacy of Suharto's 31-year rule is debated both in Indonesia
and abroad. Under his "New Order" administration, Suharto
constructed a strong, centralised and military-dominated government. An ability
to maintain stability over a sprawling and diverse Indonesia and an avowedly
anti-Communist stance won him the economic and diplomatic support of the West
during the Cold War. For most of his presidency,
Indonesia experienced significant economic growth and industrialisation,
dramatically improving health, education and living standards. Indonesia's invasion and occupation
of East Timor
during Suharto's presidency, which received de facto support from the United
States, United Kingdom and Australia at the time, resulted in at least 100,000
deaths. By the 1990s, the New Order's authoritarianism
and widespread corruption were a source of discontent. In the years after his
presidency, attempts to try him on charges of corruption and genocide failed
because of his poor health and because of lack of support within Indonesia.
Early life
Suharto was born on 8 June 1921 during the Dutch East Indies era, in a plaited bamboo walled house
in the hamlet of Kemusuk, a part of the larger village of
Godean. The village is 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) west of Yogyakarta, the cultural heartland of the Javanese.
Born to ethnic Javanese parents of peasant class, he was the only child of his
father's second marriage. His father, Kertosudiro had two children from his
previous marriage, and was a village irrigation official. His mother Sukirah, a
local woman, was distantly related to Sultan Hamengkubuwono V by
his first concubine.
Official
Portrait Suharto and First Lady SitiHartinah
Five weeks after Suharto's birth, his mother suffered a
nervous breakdown and he was placed in the care of his paternal great-aunt,
Kromodiryo. Kertosudiro and Sukirah divorced early in Suharto's life and both
later remarried. At the age of three, Suharto was returned to his mother who
had remarried a local farmer whom Suharto helped in the rice paddies. In 1929,
Suharto's father took him to live with his sister who was married to an
agricultural supervisor, Prawirowihardjo, in the town of Wurjantoro in a poor
and low-yield farming area near Wonogiri. Over the following two years, he was
taken back to his mother in Kemusuk by his stepfather and then back again to
Wurjantoro by his father.
Prawirowiharjo took to raising the boy as his own, which
provided Suharto a father-figure and a stable home in Wuryantoro, from where he
received much of his primary education. Suharto boarded with a dukun
("guru") of Javanese mystical arts and faith healing. The experience
deeply affected him and later, as president, Suharto surrounded himself with
powerful symbolic language. During this time, the Wonogiri area was one of the
worst affected in Java from the collapse in the Dutch East Indies' export
revenue during the Great Depression.
As unemployed workers returned from the towns to their villages, the
subsistence economy grew and the landless struggled to buy food.
The absence of official documentation and certain aspects
of Suharto's early life that are inconsistent with that of a Javanese peasant
(Suharto received, for example, an education fairly early on), has led to
several rumours of Suharto being the illegitimate child of a well-off
benefactor, which included being the child of a Yogyakarta aristocrat or a well-off Chinese Indonesian merchant. Suharto biographer Robert E. Elson
believes that such rumours cannot be entirely ruled out, given that much of the
information Suharto has given on his origins has been tinged with political
meaning.
Like many Javanese, Suharto had only one name.
In religious contexts in recent years has sometimes been called “Haji”
or “el-Haj Mohammed Suharto” but these names were not part of his formal name
or generally used. The spelling "Suharto" reflects modern Indonesian
spelling although the general approach in Indonesia is to rely on the spelling
preferred by the person concerned. At the time of his birth, the standard
transcription was "Soeharto" and he preferred the original
spelling. The international English-language press generally uses the spelling
'Suharto' while the Indonesian government and media use 'Soeharto'.
Suharto's upbringing contrasts with that of leading
Indonesian nationalists such as Sukarno in that he is believed to have had
little interest in anti-colonialism, or political concerns beyond his immediate
surroundings. Unlike Sukarno and his circle, Suharto did not learn to speak Dutch or
other European languages in his youth. He learned to speak Dutch after his
induction into the Dutch military in 1940.
Military career
World War II and Japanese occupation
After finishing middle school at the age of 18, Suharto
took a clerical job at a bank in Wurjantaro but was forced to resign after a
bicycle mishap tore his only working clothes. Following a spell of
unemployment, he joined the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) in 1940, and studied in a
Dutch-run military school in Gombong near Yogyakarta. With the Netherlands
under German occupation and the Japanese pressing for access to Indonesian oil
supplies, the Dutch had opened up the KNIL to large intakes of previously
excluded Javanese. After graduation, Suharto was assigned to Battalion XIII at
Rampal. His service there was unremarkable, although he contracted malaria
which required hospitalisation while on guard duty, and then gained promotion
to sergeant.
The March 1942 invasion of Imperial
Japanese forces
was initially welcomed by many Indonesians as a key step towards independence
and Suharto was one of thousands of Indonesians who volunteered for Japanese
organised security forces. He first joined the Japanese sponsored police force
at the rank of keibuho (assistant inspector), where he claimed to have
gained his first experience in the intelligence work so central to his
presidency ("Criminal matters became a secondary problem," Suharto
remarked, "what was most important were matters of a political
kind").
Suharto
shifted from police work toward the Japanese-sponsored militia, the Peta
(Defenders of the Fatherland) in which Indonesians served as officers. In his
training to serve at the rank of shodancho (platoon commander) he
encountered a localized version of the Japanese bushido, or "way of the warrior",
used to indoctrinate troops. This training encouraged an anti-Dutch and
pro-nationalist thought, although toward the aims of the Imperial Japanese
militarists. The encounter with a nationalistic and militarist ideology is
believed to have profoundly influenced Suharto's own way of thinking. The
Japanese turned ex-NCOs, including Suharto, into officers and gave them further
military education, including lessons in the use of the samurai sword.
Suharto's biographer, O.G. Roeder, records in The Smiling General (1969)
that Suharto was "well known for his tough, but not brutal, methods".
Indonesian National Revolution
Two days after the Japanese surrender in the Pacific,
independence leaders Sukarno and Hattadeclared Indonesian independence, and were appointed President and
Vice-President respectively of the new Republic. Suharto disbanded his regiment
in accordance with orders from the Japanese command and returned to Yogyakarta.
As republican groups rose to assert Indonesian independence, Suharto joined a
new unit of the newly formed Indonesian army. On the basis of his PETA
experience, he was appointed deputy commander, and subsequently a battalion
commander when the republican forces were formally organised in October 1945.
Suharto was involved in fighting against Allied troops around Magelang
and Semarang,
and was subsequently appointed head of a brigade as lieutenant-colonel, having
earned respect as a field commander. In the early years of the War, he
organised local armed forces into Battalion X of Regiment I; Suharto was
promoted to the rank of Major and became Battalion X's leader.
The arrival of the Allies, under a mandate to return the
situation to the status quo ante bellum, quickly led to clashes between Indonesian
republicans and Allied forces, namely returning Dutch and assisting British
forces. Suharto led his Division X troops to halt an advance by the Dutch T
("Tiger") Brigade on 17 May 1946. It earned him the respect of his
superior, Lieutenant Colonel SunartoKusumodirjo, who invited him to draft the
working guidelines for the Battle Leadership Headquarters (MPP), a body created
to organise and unify the command structure of the Indonesian Nationalist
forces. The military forces of the still infant Republic of Indonesia were
constantly restructuring. By August 1946, Suharto was head of the 22nd Regiment
of Division III (the "Diponegoro Division") stationed in Yogyakarta. In late
1946, the Diponegoro Division assumed responsibility for defence of the west
and southwest of Yogyakarta from Dutch forces. Conditions at the
time are reported in Dutch sources as miserable; Suharto himself is reported as
assisting smuggling syndicates in the transport of opium through the territory he controlled,
to make income.
In December 1948, the Dutch launched "Operation Crow",
which decimated much of the Indonesian fighting forces, and resulted in the
capture of Sukarno and Hatta.For his part, Suharto took severe casualties in a
humiliating defeat for Republican forces as the Dutch invaded the area of
Yogyakarta. In dawn raids on 1 March 1949, Suharto's forces and local militia
re-captured the city, holding it until noon.[
Suharto's later accounts had him as the lone plotter, although other sources
say Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX of
Yogyakarta, and the Panglima of the Third Division ordered the attack. However,
General Nasution said that Suharto took great care in
preparing the "General Offensive" (IndonesianSeranganUmum). Civilians sympathetic to the Republican cause within
the city had been galvanised by the show of force which proved that the Dutch
had failed to win the guerrilla war. Internationally, the United Nations
Security Council pressured the Dutch to cease the military offensive and to
re-commence negotiations. Suharto reportedly took an active interest in the
peace agreements, but as for many Republican military men, they were much to
his dissatisfaction.
During the Revolution, Suharto married SitiHartinah
(known as Madam Tien), the daughter of a minor noble in the Mangkunegaran royal
house of Solo. The arranged marriage was enduring and supportive, lasting until
Tien's death in 1996. The couple had six children: SitiHardiyantiRukmana (Tutut, born 1949), SigitHarjojudanto
(born 1951), BambangTrihatmodjo (born 1953), SitiHediati (Titiek, born 1959), Hutomo Mandala Putra (Tommy, born 1962), and
SitiHutamiEndangAdiningish (Mamiek, born 1964). Within the Javanese upper
class, it was considered acceptable if the wife pursued genteel commerce to
supplement the family budget, allowing her husband to keep his dignity in his
official role. The commercial dealings of Tien, her children and grandchildren
became extensive and ultimately undermined Suharto's presidency.
Post-Independence military career
In the years following Indonesian independence, Suharto
served in the Indonesian National Army, primarily in Java.
In 1950, Colonel Suharto led the Garuda Brigade in suppressing a rebellion of
largely Ambonese
colonial-trained supporters of the Dutch-established State of East Indonesia and its federal entity the United States of Indonesia. During his year in Makassar,
Suharto became acquainted with his neighbours the Habibie family, whose eldest
son BJ Habibie
would later become Suharto's vice-president and went on to succeed him as
President. In 1951, Suharto led his troops in a blocking campaign against the
Islamic-inspired rebellion of Battalion 426 in Central Java
before it was broken by the 'Banteng (Wild Buffalo) Raiders' led by Ahmad Yani
Between 1954 and 1959, he served in the important
position of commander of Diponegoro Division, responsible for Central Java and Yogyakarta
provinces. His relationship with prominent businessmen LiemSioeLiong
and Bob Hasan,
which extend throughout his presidency, began in Central Java where he was
involved in series of "profit generating" enterprises conducted
primarily to keep the poorly funded military unit functioning. Army
anti-corruption investigations implicated Suharto in a 1959 smuggling scandal.
Relieved of his position, he was transferred to the army's Staff and Command
School (Seskoad) in the city of Bandung. While in Bandung, he was promoted to
brigadier-general, and in late 1960, promoted to chief of army intelligence. In
1961, he was given an additional command, as head of the army's new Strategic
Reserve (later KOSTRAD), a ready-reaction air-mobile force
In January 1962, Suharto was promoted to the rank of major General
and appointed to lead Operation Mandala, a joint army-navy-air force command.
This formed the military side of the campaign to win western New Guinea, from the Dutch who were preparing it
for its own independence, separate from Indonesia. In 1965, Suharto was
assigned operational command of Sukarno's Konfrontasi,
against the newly formed Malaysia. Fearful that Konfrontasi would leave
Java thinly covered by the army, and hand control to the 2-million strong Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), he authorised a Kostrad
intelligence officer, Ali Murtopo,
to open contacts with the British and Malaysians.
Overthrow of Sukarno (1965)
Background
See
also: Guided Democracy in Indonesia
From the late 1950s, political conflict grew and the
economy deteriorated. By the mid-1960s, annual inflation ran between
500–1,000%, export revenues were shrinking, infrastructure crumbling, and
severe poverty and hunger were widespread. President Sukarno led his country in
a military confrontation with Malaysia while stepping up revolutionary and anti-western
rhetoric. Sukarno's position came to depend on balancing the increasingly hostile forces
of the army and Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI). By 1965 at the height of the Cold War,
the PKI penetrated all levels of government. With the support of Sukarno, the
party gained increasing influence at the expense of the army, thus ensuring the
army's enmity. By late 1965, the army was divided
between a left-wing faction allied with the PKI, and a right-wing faction that
was being courted by the United States.
Abortive coup and anti-communist purge
Main
articles: 30 September Movement and Indonesian killings of 1965–1966
On the night of 30 September 1965 six senior army
generals were kidnapped and executed in Jakarta by a battalion of soldiers from
the Presidential Guard. Backed by elements of the armed forces, the insurgents
occupied Merdeka Square including the areas in front of the Presidential
Palace, the national radio station, and telecommunications centre. At 7:10 am
Lt. Col. UntungSyamsuri
announced on radio that the "30 September Movement" had forestalled a coup by
"power-mad generals", and that it was "an internal army
affair". Apart from Armed Forces Chief of Staff, General Abdul HarisNasution—who was targeted but escaped
assassination by climbing over his garden wall when soldiers arrived to arrest
him—Suharto was the most senior general not removed by the 30 September
group Suharto had been in hospital that evening with his three-year old son Tommy
who had a scalding injury. It was here that he spoke to Colonel Abdul Latief,
the only key person in the ensuing events with whom he spoke that evening.
Upon being told of the shootings and disappearances,
Suharto went to Kostrad headquarters just before dawn from where he could see
soldiers occupying Merdeka Square. He led Kostrad in seizing control of the
centre of Jakarta, capturing key strategic sites. Suharto announced over the
radio at 9:00 pm that six generals had been kidnapped by
"counter-revolutionaries". He said he was in control of the army, and
that he would crush the 30 September Movement and safeguard Sukarno. Suharto
issued an ultimatum to Halim Air Force Base, where the G30S had based
themselves and where Sukarno (the reasons for his presence are unclear and were
subject of claim and counter-claim), General Omar Dhani
and Aidit had gathered. The coup leaders fled Jakarta[while
G30S-sympathetic battalions in Central Java quickly came under Suharto control.
The poorly organised and coordinated coup thus failed,
and by 2 October, Suharto's faction was firmly in control of the army.
Sukarno's obedience to Suharto's 1 October ultimatum to leave Halim changed all
power relationships. Sukarno's fragile balance of power between the military,
political Islam, communists, and nationalists that underlay his "Guided Democracy" was collapsing. Complicated and
partisan theories continue to this day over the identity of the attempted
coup's organisers and their aims. The army's (and subsequently the "New Order's")
official version was that the PKI was solely responsible. Other theories
include Suharto being behind the events; that the army and Suharto was merely
taking advantage of a poorly executed coup; and that Sukarno was behind the
events (see 30 September Movement).
A military propaganda campaign convinced both Indonesian
and international audiences that it was a Communist coup, and that the murders
were cowardly atrocities against Indonesian heroes. The army led a campaign to
purge Indonesian society, government and armed forces of the communist party
and leftist organisations. The purge quickly spread from Jakarta to the rest of the country. (see: Indonesian killings of 1965–1966) In some areas the army organised
civilian and religious groups and local militias, in other areas communal
vigilante action preceded the army. The most widely accepted estimates are
that at least half a million were killed. As many as 1.5 million were
imprisoned at one stage or another. As a result of the purge, one of
Sukarno's three pillars of support, the Indonesian Communist Party, was
effectively eliminated by the other two, the military and political Islam.
Power struggle
See
also: Supersemar
On 2 October, Suharto accepted Sukarno's order to take
control of the army on Suharto's condition that he personally have authority to
restore order and security. The 1 November formation of Kopkamtib (KomandoOperasiPemulihanKeamanandanKetertiban,
or Operational Command for the Restoration of Security and Order),
formalised this authority. By January 1966 the PKI, President Sukarno's
strongest pillar of support, had been effectively eliminated, the army now saw
its opportunity to occupy the apex of Indonesian power. Sukarno was still the
Supreme Commander by virtue of the constitution, thus Suharto was careful not
to be seen to be seizing power in his own coup. For eighteen months following the
quashing of the 30 September Movement, there was a complicated process of
political manoeuvers against Sukarno, including student agitation, stacking of
parliament, media propaganda and military threats.
On 1 February 1966, Sukarno promoted Suharto to the rank
of Lieutenant General. The same month, Gen. Nasution had been forced out of his
position of Defence Minister, and the power contest had been reduced to Suharto
and Sukarno. The Supersemar decree of 11 March 1966 transferred
much of Sukarno's power over the parliament and army to Suharto, ostensibly
allowing Suharto to do whatever was needed to restore order. On 12 March 1967,
Sukarno was stripped of his remaining power by Indonesia's provisional
Parliament, and Suharto was named Acting President. Sukarno was placed under house
arrest; little more was heard from him, and he died in June 1970. On 27 March
1968, the Provisional Peoples Representative
Assembly
formally appointed Suharto for the first of his five-year terms as President.
The "New Order" (1967–1998)
See
also: New Order (Indonesia)
Institutionalisation of the New Order
At first, many saw Suharto as a comparatively obscure
officer who had been fortuitously thrust to prominence by the events of late
1965 and assumed he would not remain in power long. However, by the early
1970s, he had consolidated his position by both isolating his rivals within the
army and ruling elite and rewarding those loyal to him with patronage building
the presidency into the most powerful institution in Indonesia. By the 1980s,
Suharto dominated the New Order and his military contemporaries had retired or
were otherwise no longer a threat to his position.
In contrast to the communal and political conflicts,
economic collapse and social breakdown of the late-1950s and mid-1960s,
Suharto's "New Order" —so-termed to distinguish it from
Sukarno's "old order"—was committed to achieving political order,
economic development, and the removal of mass participation in the political
process. In place of Sukarno's revolutionary rhetoric, Suharto showed a
pragmatic use of power, and in contrast to the liberal parliamentary democracy
of the 1950s, Suharto headed an authoritarian, military-dominated government.
The "New Order" featured a weak civil society, the bureaucratisation
and corporatisation of political and societal organisations, and selective but
effective repression of opponents.
To maintain domestic order, Suharto greatly expanded the
funding and powers of the Indonesian state apparatus. He established two
intelligence agencies—the Operational Command for the Restoration of Security
and Order (Kopkamtib) and the State Intelligence
Coordination Agency (BAKIN)—to deal with threats to the regime. The Bureau of Logistics (BULOG) was established to distribute rice
and other staple commodities granted by USAID. These new government bodies were put
under the military regional command structure, that under Suharto was given a
"dual function" as both a defence force and as civilian
administrators. The New Order rolled Indonesian political parties into
two — nationalists and Christian parties became the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), and Muslim parties into the People's Development Party (PPP).[14]
The New Order built an army-sponsored co-operative movement, Golkar, a
coalition of society's "functional groups", into an official party of
secular development. Golkar, PDI, and PPP were the only parties allowed to
contend elections with the latter two prevented from forming an effective
opposition. 100 seats in the electoral college for electing the President were
set aside for military representatives. Suharto was elected unopposed as
president in 1973, 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, and 1998.
As part of 1967s 'Basic Policy for the Solution of the
Chinese Problem' and other measures, all but one Chinese-language papers were
closed, all Chinese religious expressions had to be confined to their homes,
Chinese-language schools were phased out, Chinese script in public places was
banned, and Chinese were encouraged to take on Indonesian-sounding
names. Much of this legislation was revoked
following Suharto's fall from power in 1998.
Economy
From 1965 to 68, hyper-inflation was brought under
control. The influence of the well-known 'Berkeley Mafia'
group of economists, led by Professor WidjojoNitisastro, was important during this period and
the group continued to be influential for much of the rest of the Suharto ero.
A number of measures were implemented to encourage foreign investment once
again in Indonesia. These included the privatisation of its natural resources to promote investment by
industrialised nations, labour laws favourable to multinational corporations,
and soliciting funds for development from institutions including the World Bank,
western banks, and friendly governments. Suharto brought a shift in policy from
Sukarno and allowed USAID and other donor agencies to resume
operations within the country. He opened Indonesia's economy by divesting state
owned companies, and western nations in particular were encouraged to invest in
many of the mining and construction activities.
Suharto
on a visit to West Germany in
1970.
Within a few years, the Indonesian economy had been
revived from its near collapsed state of the mid-1960s. It recorded strong
annual economic growth for the three decades of Suharto's presidency although
some of the gains were lost in the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis. Indonesia
achieved self-sufficiency in rice production by the mid-1980s, basic education
was provided to almost all citizens, and a successful family planning program
was implemented. Subsidies on basics such as food and fuel to maintain
grass-roots support were provided but were costly to the government budget.
Although the Suharto regime claimed to have had success
in reducing poverty, four in five Indonesians still lived below or only
slightly above the level of $1 a day near the end of his rule. Suharto's former
government ministers flatly stated the alleged lowering of poverty rates was
false. The Suharto regime's definition of poverty was also inflated: it was a
monetary sum, a rupiah base sufficient to enable the poor to get the
internationally accepted norm of 2,100 calories a day. The cash amount had
been less than the globally accepted poverty line of $1 a day. Until the 1998
crisis, it was only about half that in Indonesia's cities, and less in the
countryside.
Influence and business opportunity became increasingly
concentrated within Suharto's family, relatives, favoured generals and a number
of ethnic Chinese businessmen that he had known since his time in Semarang in
particular LiemSiuLiong
and Bob Hasan.
Much of the funds flowed to foundations (yayasan) controlled by the
Suharto family. By the late 1980s, the extent of the first family's business
activities concerned even long-time military associates, such as General Benny Murdani.
By the pre-financial crisis peak of the mid-1990s, the family's annual
revenue was estimated in the billions of US dollars. Much of it was recycled
back into pay-offs, patronage, military subsidies, and campaign funding.
Foreign policy, Irian Jaya, East Timor
and Aceh
Upon assuming power, Suharto dispatched his foreign
minister Adam Malik to
mend strained relations with the United States, the United Nations, and end the
Sukarno-instigated Konfrontasi with Malaysia. Previously
increasingly close relations with China were cut (diplomatic ties were restored
in 1990). Suharto played an important role in the establishment of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1967 and the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC) in the early 1990s. Officially, the
"New Order" followed a foreign policy of neutrality.
In 1969, Suharto's government reached an agreement with
the United States and United Nations, to hold a referendum on self-determination
for western New Guinea. The 1969 "Act of Free Choice" was open to 1022 "chiefs"
and the unanimous decision for integration with Indonesia lead to doubts of its
validity. In 1975, Indonesia invaded East Timor and the following year declared East
Timor the 27th province of Indonesia, a status never recognised by the United
Nations. Following Suharto's 1998 resignation from the Presidency, the
Indonesian government ceded control of East Timor in 1999 following a
referendum vote for independence. An estimated minimum of 90,800 and maximum of
213,600 conflict-related deaths occurred in East Timor during the period 1974–1999 (i.e., 13% to 30.5% of the
population); namely, 17,600–19,600 killings and 73,200 to 194,000 'excess'
deaths from hunger and illness, although Indonesian forces were responsible for
only about 70% of the violent killings. According to Ben Kiernan;
demographic evidence indicates a toll of about 170,000 deaths caused by all
sides from 1975 to 1980, a sum that represents a quarter of the population
(Kiernan concludes that it was proportionately comparable to the murder of—by
his count—1.8 million people by the Communist Pol Pot regime in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979).Noam Chomsky
has referred to the 1975 Indonesian invasion and occupation of East Timor as
the worst instance of genocide relative to population since the Holocaust.
In contrast, Indonesia scholar Robert Cribb has argued that the common estimate
of 200,000 deaths by violence in East Timor is likely to be a significant
exaggeration and that the most likely figure is closer to 80,000.
In 1976, the Free Aceh Movement, or GAM, who demanded independence
for Aceh
from Indonesia. Suharto authorised troops to put down the rebellion, forcing
several of its leaders into exile in Sweden. Prolonged fighting between GAM and
the Indonesian military and police led Suharto to declare martial law in the
province, by naming Aceh a "military operational area" in 1990.
Politics and dissent
In 1970, corruption prompted student protests and an
investigation by a government commission. Suharto responded by banning student
protests, forcing the activists underground. Only token prosecution of the
cases recommended by the commission was pursued. On 5 May 1980 a group of
prominent military men, politicians, academics and students calling themselves
the "Petition of Fifty"
questioned Suharto's use of the national ideology Pancasila. The Indonesian media suppressed the news and the
government placed restrictions on the signatories. After the group's 1984
accusation that Suharto was creating a one-party state, some
of its leaders were jailed. In the same decade, it is believed by
many scholars that the Indonesian military split between a nationalist
"red and white faction" and an Islamist "green faction." As
the 1980s closed, Suharto is said to have been forced to shift his alliances
from the former to the latter, leading to the rise of JusufHabibie in
the 1990s.
The New Order's economic achievements were a major
foundation of support for Suharto across decades. Economic growth, however, was
causing great social change which was in contrast to the rigid political system
built around the President. Social dislocation in rural areas and the formation
of a new working class around large industrial areas led to a sense of social
inequalities jealousies from the late 1980s. At the same time, the fast growing
and prospering middle class grew increasingly uneasy with corruption and looked
for greater political participation. Key figures and factions within the ruling
elite began to jockey ready for Presidential succession as Suharto entered his
late 1960s.
Following the end of the Cold War, Western concern over
communism waned, and Suharto's human rights record came under greater
international scrutiny. The 1991 killing of over 200 East
Timorese civilians in
Dili,
East Timor, resulted in the Congress of the United States passing limitations on IMET
assistance to the Indonesian military. In
1993, under President Bill Clinton,
the U.S. delegation to the UN Human Rights Commission helped pass a resolution expressing
deep concern over Indonesian human rights violations in East Timor.
By 1996, Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of Sukarno,
and chair of the Indonesian Democratic Party was increasingly critical of
Suharto's "New Order". In response, Suharto backed a co-opted faction
led by Deputy Speaker of Parliament Suryadi, which removed Megawati from the
chair. A government crackdown on demonstrating Megawati supporters result in a
number of deaths, rioting and the arrest of two-hundred. Those arrested were
tried under the anti-Subversion and hate-spreading laws. It marked the
beginning of a renewed crackdown by the New Order government against supporters
of democracy, now called the "Reformasi" or Reformation.
Resignation
Main
article: Fall of Suharto
The Asian Financial Crisis had dire consequences for the
Indonesian economy and society, and Suharto's regime. The Indonesian currency
collapsed in value, foreign investment dried up, and mass layoffs of urban
workers and price rises created tension across the country. Suharto was re-elected
for another five-year term in March 1998, stacking parliament and cabinet with
his own family and business associates in the process. Increasingly, prominent
political figures spoke out against Suharto's presidency, and university
students organised nation-wide demonstrations.
The shooting of four student demonstrators in Jakarta in
May 1998 triggered rioting across the city that destroyed thousands of buildings
and killed over 1,000 people. Following public outrage at the events, a student
occupation of the parliament building, street protests across the country, and
the desertion of key political allies, on 21 May 1998 Suharto announced his resignation
from the presidency. His recently appointed Vice President Habibie
assumed the presidency in accordance with the constitution.
Post-presidency
After his resignation, Suharto retired to a family
compound in Central Jakarta, making few public appearances. Efforts to
prosecute Suharto mostly centredaround alleged mismanagement of funds, and
their force has been blunted due to health concerns as well as lack of support
within Indonesia for attempts to prosecute him. Suharto was never prosecuted.
Investigations of wealth
In May 1999, Time Asia
estimated Suharto's family fortune at US$15 billion in cash, shares,
corporate assets, real estate, jewelry and fine art. Of this, US$9 billion is
reported to have been deposited in an Austrian bank. The family is said to control
about 36,000 km² of real estate in Indonesia, including 100,000 m² of
prime office space in Jakarta and nearly 40% of the land in East Timor. Suharto
was placed highest on Transparency International's list of corrupt leaders with an
alleged misappropriation of between US $15–35 billion during his 32-year
presidency.
On 29 May 2000, Suharto was placed under house arrest
when Indonesian authorities began to investigate the corruption during his
regime. In July 2000, it was announced that he was to be accused of embezzling
US$571 million of government donations to one of a number of foundations under
his control and then using the money to finance family investments. But in
September court-appointed doctors announced that he could not stand trial
because of his declining health. State prosecutors tried again in 2002 but then
doctors cited an unspecified brain disease. On 26 March 2008, a civil court
judge acquitted Suharto of corruption but ordered his charitable foundation,
Supersemar, to pay US$110 m (£55 m).
Related legal cases
In 2002, Suharto's son Hutomo Mandala Putra, more widely
known as Tommy,
was sentenced to 15 years jail. He had been convicted of ordering the killing
of a judge who had sentenced him to 18 months jail for corruption and illegal
weapons possession. In 2006, he was freed on "conditional release."
following reductions in his sentence.
In
2003, Suharto's half-brother Probosutedjo
was tried and convicted for corruption and the loss of $10 million from the
Indonesian state. He was sentenced to four years in jail. He later won a
reduction of his sentence to two years, initiating a probe by the Indonesian
Corruption Eradication Commission into the alleged scandal of the
"judicial mafia" which uncovered offers of $600,000 to various
judges. Probosutedjo confessed to the scheme in October 2005, leading to the
arrest of his lawyers. His full four year term was reinstated. After a brief
standoff at a hospital, in which he was reportedly protected by a group of
police officers, he was arrested on 30 November 2005.
On 9 July 2007, Indonesian prosecutors filed a civil
lawsuit against former President Suharto, to recover state funds ($440 m
or £219 m, which allegedly disappeared from a scholarship fund, and a
further $1.1 billion in damages).
On 4 September 2007, mediation at the Attorney General's Office
(AGO) between prosecutors and lawyers for Suharto over the Supersemar
foundation civil lawsuit succeeded and thus the trial will have to commence.
On 10 September 2007, Indonesia's Supreme Court awarded
Suharto damages
against Time Asiamagazine,
ordering it to pay him one trillion rupiah
($128.59 million). The High Court reversed the judgment of
an appellate court
and Central Jakartadistrict court
(made in 2000 and 2001). Suharto had sued the U.S.-based Time magazine
seeking more than $US 27 billion in damages for libel over a 1999 article which reported
that he transferred stolen money abroad.
Health crises
After resigning from the presidency, Suharto was
hospitalised repeatedly for stroke, heart, and intestinal problems. His
declining health negatively affected attempts to prosecute him on charges of
corruption and human rights violations as his lawyers successfully claimed that
his condition rendered him unfit for trial. Moreover, there was little support
within Indonesia for any attempts to prosecute him. In 2006, Attorney General
Abdurrahman announced that a team of twenty doctors would be asked to evaluate
Suharto's health and fitness for trial. One physician, Brigadier General
DrMarjoSubiandono, stated his doubts about by noting that "[Suharto] has
two permanent cerebral defects." In a later Financial Times
report, Attorney General Abdurrahman discussed the re-examination, and called
it part of a "last opportunity" to prosecute Suharto criminally.
Attorney General Abdurrahman left open the possibility of filing suit against
the Suharto estate."
Death
On 4 January 2008, Suharto was taken to the Pertamina
hospital, Jakarta
with complications arising from a weak heart, swelling of limbs and stomach,
and partial renal failure. His health fluctuated for several weeks but
progressively worsened with anaemia and low blood pressure
due to heart and kidney complications, internal bleeding, fluid on his lungs,
and blood in his feces and urine which caused a haemoglobin
drop. On 23 January, Suharto's health worsened further, as a sepsis
infection spread through his body. His family consented to the removal of life
support machines, and he died on 27 January at 1:10 pm
Suharto's body was taken from Jakarta
to the GiriBangun
mausoleum complex near the Central Java city of Solo. He was buried alongside his late wife in a state
military funeral with full honours, with the Kopassus elite forces and KOSTRAD
commandos as the honour guard and pallbearers and Commander of Group II
Kopassus Surakarta Lt. Colonel AsepSubarkah. In attendance were the incumbent
president, SusiloBambangYudhoyono as "Ceremony Inspector",
and vice-president, government ministers, and armed forces chiefs of staff.
Tens of thousands of people lined the streets to see the convoy. Condolences
were offered by many regional heads of state, although certain regional leaders
such as Helen Clark,
the Prime Minister of New Zealand, boycotted the funeral, whereas Indonesia's
President SusiloBambangYudhoyono declared a week of official mourning.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suharto
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