Suharto (1921 - 2008)

SUHARTO, president of Indonesia for 32 years, died last Sunday of multiple organ failure, aged 86. A man with an enigmatic face that betrayed little or no emotion, Suharto leaves behind a mixed legacy. He will be remembered as a brutal and corrupt dictator who nevertheless lifted his country from the abyss of poverty to the pedestal of economic development. History may judge him harshly but it certainly cannot ignore him. In life as in death, Suharto looms large in his country's history.

Born to a peasant family in colonial Indonesia on June 8, 1921, Suharto's early years were rather unpleasant. His parents separated before he was two years old and the little child was thereafter shuttled between his remarried parents and other relatives. When World War II broke out in 1939, Suharto joined the Dutch colonial army in 1940, and by 1942, had risen to the post of sergeant. That was the year the Japanese, in pursuit of an Asian empire, which they described euphemistically as the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, invaded and occupied Indonesia.

As in other parts of the colonial world, the war infused a new sense of urgency and momentum into nationalist agitation. Suharto and other nationalists believed that cooperation with the Japanese offered the best hope for eventual independence from the Dutch, who were in any case then under the yoke of Nazi occupation in Europe.

On August 17, 1945, two days after the Japanese surrendered to the victorious allies, Indonesia declared independence, but had to contend with the Dutch attempt to re-impose colonial rule on the country. In the event, Suharto joined the nascent Indonesian army and for the next five years fought against Dutch imperialism. Indonesian success in the war forced the Dutch to leave finally in 1949.

Over the next decade, Suharto's career in the army advanced rapidly until in 1960 he was promoted Brigadier-General. Two years later he led a military operation to recover West Irian (the modern province of Papua), the only remaining part of the Indonesian archipelago still under Dutch control. In 1963 he was made the commander of the Indonesian army's strategic command, the special force kept on permanent alert for national emergencies. This was a very important appointment that placed Suharto in a strategic position in the country's power structure.

The Indonesian military wielded tremendous power under the country's first president, Sukarno, as did the Indonesian Communist Party (Partai Komunis Indonesia, or PKI). As commander of the strategic command, Suharto was the arrowhead of the anti-insurgency campaign against the Communists and other insurgency groups. For instance, when a group of pro-Communist army and air force troops attempted to overthrow the government in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, in October 1965, it was Suharto that suppressed them.

The army blamed the coup on the PKI. Over the course of the next few months, army units and Moslem groups undertook a systematic massacre of Communist sympathisers across the country, throwing the country into a state of political instability. In the midst of this uncertainty, Suharto successfully persuaded President Sukarno to authorise him to restore security and order. This effectively transferred executive authority to Suharto. The following year the Indonesian parliament formally appointed Suharto acting president and in 1968 elected him full president, supplanting Sukarno who had led the country since independence. To secure his political flank, Suharto kept Sukarno under house arrest until he died in June 1970.

Once he had secured the highest political office in his country, Suharto held steadfastly to it for the next 32 years. Since the constitution did not impose any limit on the number of terms a president could serve he was re-elected to successive five-year terms in 1973, 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, and 1998.

Suharto's ascendancy to the presidency took place at the height of the Cold War when Communism was perceived as a threat across the non-Communist world. Unlike his predecessor, Suharto took the threat seriously and devoted considerable energy and resources to national security. He destroyed the PKI and thereafter began a systematic repression of other organisations, including Moslems pursuing a religious agenda, artists seeking greater artistic freedom, politicians seeking greater freedom of expression and all those he perceived as threatening his hold on power. Suharto became the strongman of a very repressive and dictatorial regime.

Having used repression to establish political stability, Suharto turned his attention to economic development. Under his presidency Indonesia experienced tremendous economic growth, fuelled by foreign investment and economic diversification. He devoted substantial resources to the development of infrastructure and social improvement especially in health, education and family planning. Indonesians enjoyed a significant improvement in their standard of living.

However, as often happens in repressive regimes, corruption, cronyism, and nepotism crept into the country's socio-economic ethos. Members of Suharto's family and their business partners became stupendously wealthy. Suharto's re-election for the fifth time in 1998, which took place amidst the financial crisis that engulfed the country the previous year, sparked student demonstrations for democratic reforms. Police responded by shooting six students, which led to further riots that led to the death of over 500 people. With the intensification of opposition against his regime, Suharto finally bowed to pressure and resigned the presidency in May 1998.

Suharto's health deteriorated shortly thereafter becoming the main reason why the state found it difficult to prosecute him for corruption. For instance, a corruption case in which he was accused of embezzling $600 million from the state was suspended in 2000 after he suffered a series of strokes, and was eventually abandoned in 2006. A civil case was also instituted against him in July 2007. His death last Sunday may put a final seal to any attempt to prosecute him for corruption or political repression. The state may no longer gain access to his personal wealth, which Forbes Magazine estimated at $16 billion.

Nevertheless, the memory of Suharto will endure in the people's mind, if not in their hearts. Although most Indonesians may not remember him with fondness, they will give him credit when they ponder over the trajectory of their country's economic development.