Suharto
General Soeharto (commonly known as Suharto in the English-speaking world) (born June 8, 1921) was an Indonesian leader and military strongman. He was the second President of Indonesia, from 1967 to 1998.
His years as the leader of Indonesia were characterized by substantial economic growth that reduced poverty in the nation, although much of the standard of living gains that were made were reversed by the Asian financial crisis that began in 1997. In exchange for this economic growth, Suharto enriched his family and his associates through a variety of state monopolies, subsidies, and other schemes. He constructed a strong, centralized national government that maintained political stability in the diverse Indonesian archipelago through suppression of political dissent and regular use of the military to preserve control.
Background
Suharto was born in Kemusuk Argamulja, Yogyakarta. He joined the Dutch colonial forces and studied in a Dutch-run military academy. During World War II, he became a battalion commander in the Japanese-sponsored local military.
After the Indonesian declaration of Independence by Sukarno in 1945 his troops fought against the Dutch attempt to re-establish colonial rule. He first became widely known in the military for his surprise attack which seized Yogyakarta from them on March 1, 1949. Yogyakarta was held for only one day, but this maneuvre was widely seen of symbolic of continuing Indonesian resistence against the Dutch forces.
During the following years he served as an Indonesian National Army, primarily stationed on Java. In 1959 he was accused of smuggling and transferred to the army staff college in Bandung, West Java. In 1962 he reached the rank of major general and took charge of the Diponegoro division. During the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation, Suharto was a commander of Kostrad (Strategic Reserve), a sizeable Army combat force, which most importantly had significant presence in the Jakarta area. By 1965, the armed forces split into two factions, one left wing and one right wing, with Suharto in the right-wing camp.
Rise to power
On the morning of October 1, 1965, some of Sukarno's closest guards kidnapped and murdered six of the right-wing anti-Communist generals. One survivor, who was not targeted in the suspected coup attempt was General Suharto. Sukarno's guards claimed that they were trying to stop a CIA backed military coup which was planned to remove Sukarno from power on "Army Day", the 5th of October. This brought an immediate retalitation from Suharto and the rest of the right-wing military, purging the Indonesian armed forces of pro-Sukarno and pro-Communist elements and eventually forcing Sukarno to give up all executive powers to him on March 11, 1966. The presence of Suharto's Kostrad units in the Jakarta area allowed his allies to quickly mobilize and seize control of the capital. Eventual widespread persecution of the Communist Party across Indonesia involved the systematic killing of some 500,000 "suspected communists", mostly peasants, and violence against the minority Indonesian Chinese.
There is evidence he received CIA backing in identifying the communists. American diplomats 25 years later revealed that they had compiled lists of Indonesian "communist operatives" and had turned over as many as 5,000 names to the Indonesian military. Been Huang, former member of the US political embassy in Jakarta said in 1990: "It really was a big help to the army. They probably killed a lot of people, and I probably have a lot of blood on my hands, but that's not all bad. There's a time when you have to strike hard at a decisive moment." Howard Fenderspiel, the Indonesia expert at the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research in 1965: "No one cared, as long as they were communists, that they were being butchered. No one was getting very worked up about it."1 He ended the confrontation with Malaysia in order to free the resources of the military.
General Suharto established what he called the Orde Baru (New Order). He purged the parliament of communists, eliminated labour organizations and increased press censorship. He also cancelled diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China and re-established those with western countries and the United Nations. He became the final arbiter of all political decisions.
General Suharto increased military funding and established two intelligence agencies - the Operational Command for the Restoration of Security and Order (Kopkamtib) and the State Intelligence Coordination Agency (Bakin). About 2 million people were executed in his mass purges and more than 200,000 were arrested on mere suspection of being involved with the coup. Most communists, alleged communists and so-called "enemies of the state" were sentenced to death (although some of the executions were delayed to 1990). It is alleged that lists of suspected communists were supplied to the Suharto regime by the CIA. In addition, the CIA tracked the names on these lists as Suharto's regime cracked down on them. This tacit support of the United States government for the Suharto regime would remain quite firm throughout the terrible repression he inflicted on Indonesia, even during Suharto's notoriously brutal annexation of East Timor in 1975. Because of its wealth of resources and large consumer population, Indonesia was highly valued as a trading partner of the US and so weapon shipments were maintained to the Suharto regime until 1993, when the Clinton administration began to express concerns over Suharto's human rights record.
On March 12, 1967 Suharto was named President by Indonesia's provisional parliament. On March 21 he was formally elected for the first of his five-year terms as President. He directly appointed 20% of the house of representatives. The Golkar party became the favored party and the only acceptable one for government officials. Indonesia also became one of the founding members of ASEAN.
The height of the New Order
He also continued repression of the Indonesian Chinese, started under Sukarno, banning the use of Chinese writing in most written material, and shutting down Chinese organizations because of their alleged communist sympathies.
In 1970 Suharto banned student protests after widespread demonstrations against corruption. A commission found out that corruption was very common. Suharto approved only two cases and then closed the commission. Corruption would become endemic.
He ruled through military control and media censorship. He controlled the finance by giving easy deals and monopolies to his relatives, including his six children. He also continuously played different factions of the military against each other, starting by supporting the Nationalists and later supporting the Islamist elements.
In 1973 he won another five-year term in an electoral college vote. The same would happen in 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993 and 1998. He instituted electoral reforms whereby only three parties were allowed to participate in the elections, including his own Golkar party.
In 1975, he ordered Indonesian troops to invade the former Portuguese colony of East Timor after Portugal withdrew and the Fretilin movement seized power. Later the puppet government installed by Indonesia requested the area be annexed to the country. It was estimated that 100,000 people, roughly a third of the local population, were killed by the Indonesian army. On July 15, 1976 East Timor became the province of Timor Timur until it was transferred to the United Nations in 1999.
Corruption became a significant burden in the 1980s. On May 5, 1980 a group Petition of Fifty (Petisi 50) demanded more political freedom. It was composed of former military men, politicians, academics and students. 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.
Suharto's human rights record also became steadily worse over the years. In 1993 the UN Human Rights Commission made a resolution that expressed deep concern over Indonesian human rights violations in East Timor. US president Bill Clinton backed it.
In 1996 Suharto ousted Sukarno's daughter Megawati Sukarnoputri from the leadership of the Indonesian Democratic Party, one of the three legal parties. In June, her supporters occupied the party headquarters. After security forces arrested them, riots broke out in Jakarta.
Suharto steps down
In 1997, according to the World Bank, twenty to thirty percent of Indonesia's development budget had been embezzled over the years. The Asian financial crisis of the same year did not bode well for Suharto's rule when he was forced to apply for loans, which also meant increased IMF scrutiny.
Despite his previous promise to step down, Suharto ensured his reelection by parliament for the seventh time in March 1998. After numerous demonstrations and political and army pressure against him, he was forced to resign on May 21 in the Indonesian 1998 Revolution. His successor was his deputy Jusuf Habibie.
After the fall
In May 1999, Time Asia reported that the Suharto family fortune is worth an estimated US$15 billion in cash, shares, corporate assets, real estate, jewelery and fine art. US$9 billion of this 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 percent of the land in East Timor. Over US$73 billion is said to have passed through the family's hands during Suharto's 32-year rule.
On May 29, 2000, Suharto was placed under house arrest when Indonesian authorities began to investigate the corruption during his regime. In July, 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 blamed an unspecified brain disease. He has since been hospitalized repeatedly for stroke and heart problems.
Unable to prosecute Suharto, the state prosecuted his son Hutomo Mandala Putra, more widely known as Tommy Suharto. He was sentenced to 15 years in jail for arranging the murder of a judge who sentenced him to 18 months for his role in a land scam in September 2000. He is the first member of the Suharto family to be found guilty and jailed for a criminal offence. Tommy Suharto maintains his innocence but says he will not appeal the verdict or the sentence.
On May 10, 2005, he was hospitalized with intestinal bleeding.
| Presidents of Indonesia | ||
| Preceded by: Sukarno (1945 – 1967) |
Suharto (1967 – 1998) |
Followed by: Jusuf Habibie (1998 – 1999) |
| Politics of Indonesia | ||
References
- Blum, William. Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II, Black Rose, 1998, pp. 193-198
- [1] Article regarding the list of communists provided by the CIA
- [2] Link with information detailing the history of Suharto and his regime