Indonesia: Remembering Suharto
"e ruled with an iron grip for a generation then spent the last decade of his life dodging prosecution for alleged human-rights crimes and corruption. On Sunday, Indonesia's former strongman Suharto, once one of Asia's most influential leaders, died peacefully in a Jakarta hospital from multiple organ failure. He was 86.
"Indonesia's reaction to the passing of its longest-ruling president was muted, and paradoxical. During the final weeks of his life, elder statesmen from across the region paraded past Suharto's sickbed to pay their respects. Yet several prominent domestic visitors emerged from Jakarta's Pertamina Hospital to declare that official investigations into alleged extrajudicial killings and ill-gotten family wealth should proceed even after the former strongman's death. From the halls of power to the streets, Indonesians praise today's democratic system without vilifying the leader ousted in a student-led uprising back in 1998. Suharto 'made mistakes,' said former president Abdurrahman Wahid, who was democratically elected and held the nation's highest office from 1999-2001. 'But he also did a great service to the nation.'
"Suharto loyalists credit him for rescuing the country and, by extension, greater Southeast Asia from chaos in the mid-1960s by establishing what the strident cold warrior himself called a 'New Order.' Its aim: build a modern, unified, anti-communist Indonesia. Its salient features included political repression of most dissent, discrimination against the country's ethnic Chinese merchant-class, virulent nationalism and a strong military hand in politics. In all, Suharto served seven terms as president and remained Indonesia's supreme leader for more than 32 years before being forced to resign after mass street demonstrations engulfed the capital Jakarta amidst the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis."
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