Suharto

Haji Mohammad Soeharto or Suharto (Yogyakarta, June 8, 1921-Jakarta, January 27, 2008) was an Indonesian military man and dictator. He was the second president of Indonesia, a position he held for 31 years, from the overthrow of Sukarno in 1967 until his resignation in 1998. His legacy is still debated at home and abroad.

Suharto was born in a small village, Kemusuk, near the city of Yogyakarta, during the Dutch colonial era. He grew up in humble conditions, and his Javanese Muslim parents divorced shortly after his birth, resulting in Suharto living with parents adopted during much of their childhood. During the Japanese occupation of Indonesia, Suharto served in the Japanese-organized Indonesian security forces. During the struggle for Indonesian independence he joined the newly formed Indonesian army. Suharto rose to the rank of major general after Indonesian independence. A coup attempt on September 30, 1965, supposedly backed by the Indonesian Communist Party, was countered by troops led by Suharto. The military subsequently led an anti-communist purge, which the United States Central Intelligence Agency initially supported and later described as "one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century." Suharto seized power from Indonesia's founding president, Sukarno was appointed interim president in 1967 and elected president the following year. He then mounted a social campaign known as De-Sukarnoisation to reduce the former president's influence. Support for Suharto's presidency was strong in the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1990s, his government's authoritarianism and widespread corruption were a source of discontent and, after the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis that led to riots and deaths as a result of his repression, he resigned in May 1998. Suharto died in 2008 and received a state funeral.

Under his "New Order" administration, Suharto built a strong, centralized, military-dominated government. The ability to maintain stability in a sprawling Indonesia, coupled with an anti-communist stance, earned it economic and diplomatic support from the West during the Cold War.

During his mandate, various serious human rights violations were committed. There was media censorship, strict restrictions on freedom of association and assembly, a highly politicized and controlled judiciary, widespread torture, attacks on minority rights, massacres of suspected communists, and numerous war crimes committed in East Timor., Aceh, Papua and the Moluccas Islands. According to Transparency International, Suharto was the most corrupt leader in modern history, as it is estimated that he embezzled between $15 and 35 billion dollars during his rule.

Early years

He was born in the city of Yogyakarta, in the center of the island of Java. He was part of the Dutch Colonial Forces and studied at a Dutch military academy. During World War II, he was a battalion commander in the local military militia organized by the Japanese occupation forces.

After Indonesia's declaration of independence in 1945, Suharto's troops fought against the Dutch attempt to reestablish the former colony. He became widely known for his surprise attack on Dutch troops in Yogyakarta, his hometown. The attack took the city for a single day, on March 1, 1949, but this maneuver was seen as a symbol of persistent Indonesian resistance against the Dutch.

In later years, Suharto was part of the Indonesian Army, stationed mainly on the island of Java. In 1959 he was accused of smuggling and transferred to the Bandung Military School in West Java. In 1962 he was promoted to Commander and took charge of the Diponegoro division. During the war with Malaya, Suharto was a commander of the Kostrad (the strategic reserve), a considerable Army force, with an important presence in the area around Jakarta. By 1965, the armed forces were divided into two factions, one leftist, with great sympathies towards the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), and the other rightist, with Suharto in the second faction and supported by the United States.

The communists, taking advantage of the tension, denounced that there was a Council of generals preparing a coup d'état led by the CIA, triggering the start of the "September 30 Movement" led by Lieutenant Colonel Sukarno and killed six military leaders. These deaths led Suharto to initiate a countercoup, crushing the 'September 30 Movement', which allowed him to remove Sukarno from power and accuse the communists of being behind the coup, a justification that served him to initiate a massacre against the communists. Estimates speak of 500,000 to one million deaths. This allowed him to gain the support of senior army officials and initiate a series of reforms. He implemented laws that liberalized the economy, thus favoring foreign investments, gradually approaching the capitalist model. Indonesia experienced economic growth based on oil. Suharto handed over mineral and forestry resources to foreign companies, thus gaining the complicity of the United States and the World Bank, which financed some of his programs such as "transmigration". of the inhabitants of Java to other islands. Suharto's next step to culminate with the formation of the " Indonesian empire" and to prevent an independent government from falling into the hands of China was to forcibly seize East Timor, a Portuguese colony that crossed " the carnation revolution" in search of independence. The United States, interested in avoiding a rapprochement with China, authorized Suharto to invade and incorporate the new territory. Thus began the great massacre of East Timor, since the United States never raised any problem with Suharto about the violations of human rights.

Establishment of the new order

Shortly after taking control of Jakarta and nearby areas, the military faction loyal to Suharto (along with allies in Islamic student groups) demanded Sukarno's overthrow. They acted as death squads against his supporters, communist sympathizers and the minority of Chinese origin throughout Indonesia.

On March 11, 1966, the convalescent Sukarno wrote a letter (the Surat Perintah Sebelas Maret or "Supersemar") that formally granted Suharto emergency powers over the country. Through this, Suharto established what he called the "New Order" (Orde Baru in Bahasa Indonesia). Suharto consolidated his power by outlawing the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), purging Parliament and the cabinet of members loyal to Sukarno, eliminating independent unions, and establishing censorship of the press.

Internationally, Suharto set the country on a path toward improving relations with Western nations, while ending its friendly relations with the People's Republic of China, initiated by Sukarno.

He sent his foreign minister to repair strained relations with the United States, the United Nations and Malaysia, with the intention of ending the confrontation between the two countries.

On March 12, 1967, Suharto was named president by Indonesia's provisional parliament and on March 21, he was formally elected to his first five-year term as president. He directly appointed 20% of the House of Representatives. The Golkar party became the only one acceptable to government officials. Indonesia also became one of the founding members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

To maintain order, Suharto greatly expanded the financing and energies of the apparatus Indonesian state. Two intelligence agencies were established: the Operational Command for Security Restoration (KOPKAMTIB) and the State Intelligence Coordination Agency (BAKIN), to deal with "threats to the regime". Suharto also established the Logistics Office (BULOG) to distribute rice and other American donations from USAID. These new Government bodies were placed under the regional military command structure, to which Suharto gave a "dual function" as a defense force and as civil administrators.

Consequences

Due to a series of factors (mainly censorship), the death tolls due to state terrorism between 1965 and 1967 are controversial. Estimates of deaths from the conflict are between 100,000 and 1 and a half million people.

It is known that with Suharto's rise to power, the Indonesian dissidents who survived were classified as tapol (short for tahanan politik or "political prisoner" 3. 4;). During Suharto's rule, the tapol suffered heavy prison sentences and their property was confiscated by the government, and once released, they were carefully monitored and prohibited from participating in public life. The status of tapol also damaged the reputation of their spouses, children, friends and relatives.

Among the tapol were prominent figures from the Sukarno years, including Pramoedya Ananta Toer, the country's best-known international writer. He was accused of being a member of LEKRA, a group of communist intellectuals, and was detained in the penal colony in Buru. When restrictions on Tapol communications eased, Pramoedya published a memoir, The Soliloquy of the Mute (Nyanyi Sunyi Seorang Bisu, 1995), with detailed accusations of forced labor, hunger and other abuses in the colony ("Tapol Troubles" 1999).

Both supporters and critics of Suharto acknowledge that the period of repression was marked by human rights abuses. Adherents claim that these abuses were justified by the imminent threat of a coup by the PKI, as attempted in 1948 under Sukarno's government. Suharto's critics say that the PKI in 1965 had a similar inclination to the moderate theses of the European communist parties (Eurocommunism), far from Soviet and Chinese influence, and preferred electoral politics to armed insurrection. They also claim that Suharto's actions between 1965 and 1967 were motivated solely by personal ambition.

Support from the West

Despite a long period of secrecy during the Cold War, there are archives with evidence of Western assistance, mainly American, British and Australian after the seizure of power by General Suharto. These countries were interested in overthrowing Sukarno, seen in the West as a threat due to his rapprochement with the People's Republic of China and the confrontation with Malaysia, in favor of a more pro-Western leader.

Beginning in 1990, several American diplomats made it known to the Washington Post and other media outlets that they had prepared lists of "communist operatives" in Indonesia, releasing a list of 5000 names (of PKI militants and sympathizers) to the military and General Suharto's intelligence agency (Kadane, 1990).

In 2001, the National Security Archive at George Washington University obtained several internal documents from the United States Department of State, supporting diplomats' claims of American collaboration with General Suharto. However, the Security Files affirm that communications between the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) would have been substantially edited.

The role of the British Foreign Office and MI6 has also been revealed in a series of articles in The Independent newspaper beginning in 1997. The revelations include an anonymous Foreign Office source stating that The decision to overthrow Sukarno was made by Harold Macmillan, the then British premier, and carried out under Harold Wilson. In particular, it is alleged that the Information Investigation department of the Foreign Office coordinated a psychological war with the British military in a propaganda campaign against the Indonesian Communist Party, Indonesians of Chinese origin and himself. Sukarno.

Even if the use of the Intelligence Bureau implicates it, the British government denies that MI6 had anything to do with Suharto's seizure of power, and related documents have not yet been declassified. (Lashmar and Oliver 2000).

Heyday of the new order

The two decades following Sukarno's overthrow marked an extension of Indonesia's military and economic power, as well as the assertion of Indonesian identity over regional or ethnic identities. Indonesia under Suharto had little tolerance for dissent, and it is generally referred to as lacking human rights.

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On economic matters, Suharto entrusted his policies to a group of American-educated economists, nicknamed the Berkeley Mafia. Shortly after he took power, he carried out reforms to establish Indonesia as a center for foreign investment. These changes included the privatization of its natural resources to promote their exploitation by industrialized nations, industrial legislation favorable to multinational corporations, and requests for development loans from institutions such as the World Bank, Western banks and friendly governments ("Indonesia Economic' 34;, 2005).

However, without any oversight, members of the military and the Golkar were intermediaries between business interests (foreign and domestic) and the Indonesian government. This led to a high degree of corruption in the form of bribery, organized crime and embezzlement. The money from these practices often went to foundations (yayasan) under the control of Suharto's family. Corruption became so serious that the NGO Transparency International considered Suharto the most corrupt politician and Indonesia has been consistently ranked among the most corrupt nations.

Unitarian state and regional unrest

From his rise to power until his resignation, Suharto continued the policies of his predecessor Sukarno by asserting the sovereignty of the Republic of Indonesia. He acted zealously in asserting and enforcing territorial interests in the region, both through diplomacy and military action.

In 1969 Suharto took the initiative to end the long controversy over the last Dutch territory in the East Indies, West Papua. Together with the United States and the United Nations, an agreement was reached to hold a referendum on independence, in which participants could choose between remaining part of the Netherlands, joining the Republic of Indonesia, or assuming independence. Although originally drafted as a national vote of all adults in Papua, the "Free Choice Act" which was held in July-August 1969, allowed only 1,022 "chiefs" to vote. The unanimous vote was for integration with the Republic of Indonesia, which leads to doubts about the validity of the vote (Simpson).

In 1975, after Portugal withdrew from its colony of East Timor and the Fretilin movement momentarily took power, Suharto ordered his troops to invade the country. The puppet government installed by Indonesia then requested that the area be annexed to the country. The Indonesian army killed an estimated 100,000 people, about a third of the local population. On 15 July 1976, East Timor became the province of Timor Timur until an independence referendum was held in 1999 and transferred to the United Nations until 2002.

In 1976 the regime was challenged in the province of Aceh by the formation of the Free Aceh Movement or GAM, which demanded independence from the unitary state. Suharto quickly authorized troops to put down the rebellion, forcing several of its leaders into exile in Sweden. Prolonged fighting between the GAM and the Indonesian military and police led Suharto to declare martial law in the province, declaring Aceh an "area of military operations" (DOM) in 1990.

The rapid development of Indonesia's traditional urban centers provided the basis for Suharto's territorial ambitions. The rapid pace of this development had greatly increased the population density. In response, Suharto pursued the policy of transmigration, to promote the movement from overpopulated cities to rural regions of the archipelago where natural resources had not yet been exploited.

Policies and opposition

In 1970, corruption prompted student protests and an investigation by a government commission. Suharto reacted by banning student protests, forcing activists to go underground. Only symbolic acts recommended by the commission went to court. The Suharto regime repeated the tactic of playing into the hands of a few of its most powerful opponents while criminalizing the rest.

In order to maintain a covert democracy, Suharto carried out some electoral reforms. He underwent an electoral college vote every five years beginning in 1973. However, according to the election rules, only three parties were allowed to participate in the elections: his own Golkar party, the Islamist Party Development Party (PPP) and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI). All previously existing political parties were forced to become part of the PPP or the PDI, while government employees were pressured to become members of Golkar. In a political compromise with the powerful military, he prohibited its members from voting in elections, but allocated 100 seats in the electoral college for their representatives. As a result, he won every election he ran for, in 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993 and 1998.

This authoritarianism became a problem in 1980. On May 5 of that year, a group, Pedido de 50 (Petisi 50), demanded greater political freedoms. It was made up of retired military personnel, politicians, academics and students. The Indonesian press censored the news and the government placed restrictions on signatories. After the group accused Suharto of creating a one-party state in 1984, some of its members went to prison.

In the same decade, many scholars believe that the Indonesian military split between the nationalist "red and white faction" and the "green faction" of Islamist tendency. Towards the end of the 1980s, Suharto is said to have shifted his alliances from nationalists to Islamists, leading to the rise of B.J. Habibe in the 1990s.

After the 1990s brought the end of the Cold War, Western concern about communism disappeared and international interest turned to the Suharto regime's list of human rights violations. In 1991 the murder of East Timorese civilians in a cemetery in Dili, also known as the Santa Cruz Massacre, focused American attention on its military relations with the Suharto regime and the issue of the Indonesian occupation of East Timor.. In 1992 this action caused the United States Congress to limit IMET assistance to the Indonesian military, despite the objections of US President George H. W. Bush.

In 1993, under President Bill Clinton, the US delegation to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights supported a resolution expressing deep concern about human rights violations in East Timor by Indonesia.

Reform protests and Suharto's fall

In 1996 Suharto took action to forestall challenges to the New Order government. The Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), a legal party that had traditionally supported the regime, had changed direction and begun to assert its independence. Suharto fostered a split in the PDI leadership, supporting a faction loyal to Parliament Speaker Suryadi against the faction loyal to Megawati Sukarnoputri, Sukarno's daughter and the true president of the PDI.

After the Suryadi faction announced to the party congress a motion to fire Megawati, she proclaimed that her supporters would hold demonstrations in protest. The Suryadi faction continued with the dismissal of Megawati and protests were seen throughout Indonesia. This led to several street fights between protesters and security forces, and recriminations about the violence. The protests culminated in the military allowing Megawati supporters to take over the PDI headquarters in Jakarta, with a commitment not to hold further demonstrations.

Suharto allowed the occupation of the PDI headquarters to continue for almost a month, because attention was also focused on Jakarta due to high-level meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to be held there. Taking advantage of this, Megawati's supporters organized "democracy forums" with several speakers. On July 26, military officials, the Suryadi faction, and Suharto made their outrage with the forums publicly known (Aspinall, 1996).

On July 27, police, soldiers and people claiming to be Suryadi supporters took over the headquarters. Several Megawati supporters were killed and more than two hundred were arrested and tried on charges of "subversion" and "hate incitement". This day would be known as "Black Saturday" and would mark the beginning of a harsh persecution by the New Order government against supporters of democracy, now called "Reformasi" o Reform (Amnesty International, 1996).

In 1997, the Asian financial crisis had serious consequences on the economy and society Indonesia and the Suharto regime. The Indonesian currency, the rupiah, lost much of its value. Suharto was subjected to scrutiny by credit institutions, mainly the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the United States, for prolonged embezzlement and protectionist measures. In December, Suharto's government signed a letter of intent with the IMF, pledging to enact austerity measures, such as cuts to public services and withdrawal of subsidies, in exchange for aid from the IMF and other donors.

By early 1998, the austerity measures enacted by Suharto had begun to damage confidence in the regime. Prices of products such as kerosene, rice, utility costs and education increased dramatically. The effects were exacerbated by widespread corruption.

Suharto ran for re-election in parliament for the seventh time in March 1998, justifying the need for his leadership during the crisis. Parliament approved a new term. This sparked nationwide protests and riots, now known as the Indonesian Revolution of 1998. Disagreements within his own Golkar party and the military eventually weakened Suharto and on May 21 he renounced power. He was replaced by his vice president Jusuf Habibie.

After the overthrow

In May 1999, Time Asia magazine reports that Suharto's family fortune is approximately $15 billion in cash, stocks, business interests, property, jewelry and works of art. Of these, 9 billion would have been deposited in an Austrian bank. The family is said to control around 36,000 km² of property in Indonesia, including 100,000 m² of prime offices in Jakarta, and about 40 percent of the land in East Timor. It is said that more than 73 billion dollars would have passed through the hands of the family during the 32 years of Suharto's government.

On May 29, 2000, Suharto was placed under house arrest as Indonesian authorities began investigating corruption during his regime. In July it was announced that he was accused of embezzling $571 million in government donations from one of several foundations under his control, and then using the money to make family investments. But in September court-appointed doctors announced that he could not be tried due to his deteriorating state of health. The State tried again in 2002 but again the doctors claimed an unspecified brain disease. Suharto was subsequently hospitalized several times for strokes and heart problems.

Unable to charge Suharto, the state accused his son Hutomo Mandala Putra, better known as Tommy Suharto. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison for ordering the murder of a judge who sentenced him to 18 months for his role in a land fraud in September 2000. He is the first member of Suharto's family to be found guilty and imprisoned for a crime. Tommy Suharto maintains his innocence but says he will not appeal the verdict or sentence.

On May 6, 2005, Suharto was taken to Pertamina Hospital in Jakarta with intestinal bleeding, believed to be due to diverticulosis. Indonesia's political elite, including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Jusuf Kalla, visited him at his bedside. He was discharged and returned home six days later.

On May 26, 2005, the Jakarta Post newspaper reported that in the face of attempts by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's government to tackle corruption, Indonesian Attorney General Abdurrahman Saleh appeared before the parliamentary committee to discuss attempts to prosecute New Order figures, including Suharto. The attorney general stressed that he had hoped that Suharto would recover so that the government could begin investigations into human rights violations and corruption in order to compensate and recover state funds, but expressed skepticism that this would be possible. Indonesia's Supreme Court also issued a decree making the Attorney General's Office responsible for overseeing Suharto's medical care.

Death

On January 4, 2008, Suharto was admitted to the Petarmina hospital in Jakarta. His health deteriorated rapidly and he was diagnosed with anemia and low blood pressure due to liver and kidney problems. Throughout the three weeks that he was admitted, his condition deteriorated due to an infection, which caused his death on January 27 at ten minutes past one in the afternoon.

He was transferred to the Giri Bangun mausoleum, where his wife was also buried. The funeral was attended by numerous representatives of the government and the armed forces. The president of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono declared a week of official mourning and various events took place in honor of the former president of Indonesia.