|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
GATEWAY TO INDONESIA
|
|
Information & Research Resources
|
|
|
|
|
8 June 1921 - 28 January 2008
|
| |
| |
| |
| |
|
|
|
2nd President of Indonesia
March 12, 1967- May 21, 1998
|
|
Focus on current affairs
|
| |
|
INDONESIA MONITOR
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
PRESIDENTS
OF INDONESIA
|
|
|
Sukarno
|
August 17, 1945 - March 12, 1967
|
|
Suharto
|
March 12, 1967- May 21, 1998
|
|
J.E. Habibie
|
May 21, 1998- October 20,1999
|
|
A.R. Wahid
|
October 20, 1999- July 23, 2001
|
|
Megawati
|
July 23, 2001-October 20, 2003
|
|
S.B. Yudhoyono
|
October 20, 2004
|
|
| |
|
SUHARTO YEARS
1967 - 1998
Website
Soeharto Media Center
CIA STALLING STATE DEPARTMENT HISTORIES
1964-1968
|
Suharto:
A Declassified Documentary Obit 01/28/08
|
|
How Did
Suharto Steal $35 Billion?
|
|
The Australian: Released papers implicate Suharto
02/01/08
|
| |
|
Time: Suharto: Twilight of the God 01/27/2008
After the overthrow, Suharto spent most of his time living at
home with his family in an upscale neighborhood in central Jakarta even as allegations of ill-gotten wealth percolated
through the press. Citing declining health and diminished mental capacity, Suharto managed to stay out of court
despite a 1998 legislative decree ordering an investigation in all corruption, collusion and nepotism charges involving
Suharto. He was constantly in and out of hospitals after suffering strokes and undergoing kidney dialysis.
When it became clear that he would not survive the latest hospitalization,
the new rulers of the archipelago came to pay homage and to pray for his recovery. The Golkar party, which Suharto
founded and retains the largest bloc in parliament, called for all pending graft charges —pending for a decade
now — be dropped. As the ex-strongman lay dying, the health minister instructed all hospitals to provide their
best equipment to Pertamina hospital, where Suharto was being treated. But after three weeks, he died of multiple
organ failure. He will be buried next to his wife in the central Java city of Solo. It is not clear what will happen
to the civil suit brought against him by Indonesia's attorney general for allegedly siphoning off more than $1.4
billion from one of the many foundations set up during his rule.
An era of democracy has now replaced Suharto's despotic rule. And yet, he leaves behind an edifice as sturdy as
that millennium-old temple in Prambanan. The way things are done in Indonesia is the system of patronage he set
up and it remains firmly in place to this day.
|
|
PHOTO'S - Suharto's Indonesia
A look back at life in the world's fourth largest country
under one of Asia's longest serving rulers
|
|
TIME: Indonesia Bids Farewell to Suharto 01/29/08
|
| |
|
TIME Mulls Indonesia Court Ruling 09/11/07
When TIME's Asian edition published an investigative story in 1999 demonstrating
how Indonesian leader Suharto and his children had enriched themselves during his 32-year rule, the former dictator
sued the magazine for libel. He asked for a remarkable sum of money — $27 billion — and he lost. The Central Jakarta
District Court rejected his suit in 2000, a decision that was subsequently upheld by an intermediate appellate
court and widely viewed as a victory for press freedom in the country.
Suharto's lawyers continued to appeal the decision, however,
all the way up to Indonesia's Supreme Court. There was no indication that the case had progressed, until yesterday.
Press reports quoted a court spokesman in Jakarta as saying that the Supreme Court has ruled against TIME, awarding
Suharto — who stepped down as President in 1998 and who, at age 86, is apparently in declining health — $106 million
and calling for TIME to print an apology.
TIME and its lawyers assume the reports are accurate, even though TIME hasn't yet been informed of any decision.
The magazine stands by its story. "This is a blow to freedom of the press, and it means it is not safe for
the press to work," Todung Mulya Lubis, an Indonesian lawyer representing TIME, told Agence France Presse.
"TIME will take any legal measures available to defend freedom of the press, because this is important to
uphold justice and the truth."
The article in question, a 14-page story entitled "The Family Firm" (the cover line read "Suharto
Inc.,") showed how Suharto and his children built up a fortune estimated at $15 billion in "cash, shares,
corporate assets, real estate, jewelry and fine art," amid a climate of corruption, collusion and nepotism.
Suharto denied the charges, and when he brought his lawsuit,
many observers assumed that a foreign publication wouldn't be able to get a fair trial in Indonesia when it was
up against a former President who had appointed the judges hearing the case. Yet the Jakarta court ruled that the
article had been published in the public interest, a defense against defamation in Indonesia, and that Suharto
had presented insufficient evidence to support his claims. The court also ruled that TIME had "covered both
sides" in its article.
It's unclear why the Indonesian Supreme Court has apparently now overturned that ruling. Neither side presented
any fresh arguments before the high court. Once TIME is officially notified of the decision, it has the option
of filing a request that the court review its decision, the final stage in the Indonesian legal process.
Ironically, the Indonesian government has pursued its own cases against Suharto, alleging widespread corruption.
Indonesia's attorney general dropped corruption charges last year, citing Suharto's inability to defend himself
due to poor health. But press reports indicate that a civil case seeking more than $1.5 billion, which alleges
that Suharto misused charity funds during his rule, is still pending.
|
| |
Suharto
Dies at 86; Indonesian Dictator Brought Order and Bloodshed
By MARILYN BERGER
New York Times, January 28, 2008
Suharto of Indonesia, whose 32-year dictatorship was one of the
most brutal and corrupt of the 20th century, died Sunday in Jakarta. He was 86.
He had been admitted to a Jakarta hospital on Jan. 4 with heart, lung and kidney problems, and placed on a dialysis
machine and then a ventilator to support his final days of life.
Mr. Suharto was driven from office in 1998 by widespread rioting, economic paralysis and political chaos. His rule
was not without accomplishment; he led Indonesia to stability and nurtured economic growth. But these successes
were ultimately overshadowed by pervasive and large-scale corruption; repressive, militarized rule; and a convulsion
of mass bloodletting when he seized power in the late 1960s that took at least 500,000 lives.
As the leader of one of the world’s most populous countries, Mr. Suharto and his family became notorious for controlling
state enterprises and taking kickbacks for government contracts, for siphoning money from state charities and for
committing gross violations of human rights.
Yet Mr. Suharto remained virtually untouchable to the end, even as his successors in a new democratic system repudiated
his rule. He was never charged with the killings committed under his command, and managed to escape criminal prosecution
for embezzling millions of dollars, possibly billions, by having himself declared mentally incapable to stand trial.
A civil suit against him was pending at his death.
After he was forced from office, he tried to give the appearance of a frail and humiliated former potentate, but
he could be seen jogging and swinging a golf club at his home in the center of Jakarta. His health deteriorated
in his final years, and he became something of a recluse.
In his last days, a parade of the country’s power elite visited the hospital to pay their respects.
Mr. Suharto — who like many Indonesians used only one name — stepped down on May 21, 1998, just two months after
arranging to have himself elected to a seventh five-year term. He departed with an apology to the nation. “I am
sorry for my mistakes,” he said. But his quiet statement came only after the deaths of 500 student protesters,
an event that shocked the people into a consensus that the president must go.
When demonstrators occupied the Parliament building, once-docile legislators finally called on him to resign.
Like his predecessor, Sukarno, Mr. Suharto worked to forge national unity in a fractious country of 200 million
people comprising 300 ethnic groups speaking 250 languages and inhabiting about 6,000 islands spread over a 3,500-mile
archipelago.
Sukarno had also fallen from power in a wave of violence, one that swept the country in 1965 after an attack that
was officially portrayed as an abortive leftist coup. Mr. Suharto, one of the few senior military officers to escape
execution on the first day of that uprising, moved decisively against the insurgents and effectively took control
of the country.
Mr. Suharto dealt gingerly with Sukarno, a founding father of the nation who still had support within the army.
Sukarno was kept as a figurehead while Mr. Suharto, a relatively little known major general, waited three years
to officially succeed him, in 1968.
In the following years, governing through consensus, traditional mysticism, military repression and authoritarian
control, President Suharto restored order to the country and presided over an era of substantial development. Many
Indonesians benefited from his programs, but none more so than members of his family, who became billionaires many
times over. Last year, he topped a new list of world leaders who had stolen from state coffers. The list, by the
United Nations and the World Bank, cited an estimate that he had embezzled $15 billion to $35 billion.
Enigmatic and Magical
Mr. Suharto was an unlikely character to play such a major role in his country’s destiny. He was a private person,
and although he wielded complete power, he spoke in gentle tones, smiled sweetly to friend and foe and presented
himself as a man of humble origins, shy, retiring and enigmatic. Short and thick set, he almost invariably dressed
in a Western business suit or a safari jacket once he gave up his military uniform, and a black songkok, the flat
traditional Indonesian cap.
He rarely took a public stand on any issue. Instead, by waiting to allow a consensus to form, he was usually able
to make events evolve the way he wished. He can be better understood in the context of the old forms of Javanese
kingship in which the ruler was surrounded by courtiers who tried to divine the royal mind.
Although he was a Muslim, Mr. Suharto seemed imbued with Indonesian traditions of animism and mysticism overlaid
with Hindu and Buddhist teachings. In a country given to superstition, where ancient patterns of belief coexist
with more modern ideas, he consulted gurus and dukuns, spiritual advisers and soothsayers who were believed to
be in touch with natural forces.
Whether it was those forces or his timing, good fortune came to him. Just as the United States was becoming embroiled
in Vietnam, he stood as a bulwark against Communism in Asia. The United States rewarded him with a foreign aid
program that eventually amounted to more than $4 billion a year. In addition, a consortium of Western countries
and Japan established an aid program that in 1994 alone totaled almost $5 billion.
In doing so, the United States, along with much of the rest of the world, showed a willingness to overlook the
corruption, favoritism and violations of human rights, including the disappearance of opposition politicians, that
came to characterize Mr. Suharto’s rule.
Many Indonesians, too, supported him, at least while the economy was buoyant. But the Asian economic turmoil in
1997 exposed Indonesia’s economy as on the brink of collapse.
The currency lost 30 percent of its value in 1996, a drought made rice scarce, unemployment rose and the widening
income gap led to rioting and violence. Mr. Suharto turned to the International Monetary Fund, which agreed to
a $43 billion bailout if Indonesia would abide by its terms.
His signing of those terms was seen as a humiliating capitulation, but he equivocated when it came to instituting
them. Many saw his hesitation as an effort to protect the fortunes of his family and friends, money widely believed
to have been stashed in foreign banks.
Mr. Suharto called for belt-tightening. He raised fuel prices, then revoked the order. He promised bank reform
and ended tax breaks, then reversed himself or left wide loopholes.
His failure to come to grips with economic problems brought a wave of student unrest. In May 1998, student rallies
spilled from the campuses into the streets and across the archipelago. Hundreds died in fires and clashes with
security forces.
Apparently unable to grasp the seriousness of the situation, Mr. Suharto left on a trip to Cairo, but was forced
to cut it short in an effort to restore order. The economic crisis was a challenge that he did not seem to know
how to handle.
“This is something he cannot shoot, he cannot put in jail, he cannot close down, like our newspaper,” said Jusuf
Wanandi, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta, an Indonesian policy
institute.
Anti-Communist Purges
In the 1960s, during the turbulent months after his rise to power, few would have predicted that Mr. Suharto, a
peasant turned soldier, would be able to weather crisis after crisis, as he did for 32 years.
The first of those was touched off by long-smoldering resentments between Communists, conservative Muslims and
ethnic Chinese that exploded into one of the bloodiest massacres in modern history.
His precise role in the violence is not clear; he managed to keep his name from being directly attached to it.
What is clear is that in many areas the army, which he controlled, supplied weapons to and whipped up a tense population
to mutilate and murder people suspected of being Communists, many of them of Chinese ancestry. Estimates of the
number of dead have ranged from 500,000 to as many as one million.
Contemporary dispatches reported that the general sent crack troops of the army’s Strategic Reserve Command to
organize the liquidation of the Communists. Hamish McDonald, a journalist with wide experience in Asia, wrote in
his book “Suharto’s Indonesia” that General Suharto later dispatched Col. Sarwo Edhi Wibowo with a force of commandos
“to encourage the anti-Communist civilians to help with the job.” The colonel said, “We gave them two or three
days’ training, then sent them out to kill the Communists.”
Along with presumed Communists, entire families were wiped out and personal scores settled with ethnic Chinese,
longtime residents of the country.
Mr. Suharto had blamed the Indonesian Communist Party for what he described as an abortive coup in 1965, though
the Communists’ exact role in it remains unclear. In that uprising, six senior anti-Communist generals were killed
in one evening, and questions have lingered about why Mr. Suharto was one of the few senior officers not marked
for assassination. In any event, he became the chief beneficiary of the subsequent crackdown as he moved quickly
to consolidate his control.
When Mr. Suharto took over from Sukarno, the country was bankrupt. Inflation was rampant and hunger was commonplace
in a country rich in natural resources.
Mr. Suharto ended Sukarno’s policy of confrontation with Malaysia and became a force for regional stability by
helping to establish the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Indonesia rejoined the United Nations, from which
it had withdrawn in 1965.
With the help of American-trained economists, Indonesia moved from being the world’s largest rice-importing nation
to a rice exporter. During the 1970s, oil was a major export and a significant source of foreign exchange. High
oil prices allowed considerable economic development, but when Pertamina, the national oil company, was shaken
by scandal in the late ’70s, the country again neared bankruptcy.
Mr. Suharto brought what became known as the New Order to Indonesia, but at the price of repression. Scholars have
estimated that as many as 750,000 people were arrested in the military crackdown after the killing of the generals,
and that 55,000 to 100,000 people accused of being Communists may have been held without trial for as long as 14
years.
In the early ’80s, 4,000 to 9,000 people were killed by death squads organized by army Special Forces to deal with
petty criminals and some political operatives. And, according to Benedict Richard O’Gorman Anderson, a professor
emeritus of government at Cornell, 200,000 people of a population of 700,000 died in East Timor in the civil war
and famine after Indonesia’s invasion and annexation in 1975.
Professor Anderson called Mr. Suharto a “malign dictator with blood on his hands — over the years anywhere from
half a million to a million people.”
The repressiveness of the Suharto era broke into the headlines during President Ronald Reagan’s trip to Asia in
1986, a trip meant to highlight the “winds of freedom” in the region. Just before Mr. Reagan’s arrival in Bali,
the government expelled a correspondent for The New York Times and barred two Australian journalists after unfavorable
reports about the great wealth accumulated by the general and his family.
When he came to power, he refused at first to move into the presidential palace, saying he preferred to live in
his own modest house in Jakarta. During his years as president, however, his homes became palatial.
The Family Business
While he occupied himself with affairs of state or relaxed with a round of golf or a day of fishing, his wife,
Siti Hartinah Suharto, known as Madame Tien, handled the family’s business affairs. She became the object of quiet
criticism, with her detractors calling her “Madame Tien Percent,” a reference to what were said to be commissions
she received on business deals.
But Madame Tien, who died in 1996, was restrained compared with the six Suharto children. They used their connections
to amass as much as $35 billion from their business interests, according to an estimate by Transparency International,
a private anticorruption organization. Cartels and monopolies extended the family’s reach to paper, cement, plywood,
cloves, toll roads, power plants, automobiles and banks.
One daughter, Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, led a corporate group that collected many of the tolls on new highways.
A son, Bambang Trihatmodjo, became chairman of a conglomerate of some 90 companies with interests in everything
from shipping and insurance to cocoa and timber, hotels, television, automobiles, even condoms. Another son was
connected to the state oil monopoly.
Whatever favors were not given to the Suharto family went to friends. A respected Indonesian scholar was quoted
by The Times as saying: “At least 80 percent of major government projects go in some form to the president’s children
or friends.”
The family has denied that it benefited unfairly from tax breaks and other favors and said government contracts
had been subjected to competitive bidding, a widely disputed assertion.
Impoverished Childhood
Mr. Suharto was born on June 8, 1921, in Kemusu Argamulja, a village west of Yogyakarta in central Java. He was
the only child from his father’s second marriage, but he had 11 half-brothers and sisters. His father was a village
irrigation official, with control over the water for rice growers.
His parents divorced, and he moved from his mother’s home to an aunt’s, to his father’s, to his stepfather’s. At
one point he was transferred to the household of Daryatmo, a noted guru and dukun, who remained an adviser to Mr.
Suharto in his later years.
He was so poor that he once had to change schools because he could not afford the shorts and shoes that were the
required uniform. His education ended with junior high school. He found a job in the bank in his village, but resigned
after he tore his only set of work clothes in a bicycle accident.
Indonesia was a Dutch colony, and with the outbreak of war in 1940 he joined the Royal Netherlands Indies Army,
which surrendered to the Japanese three months after Pearl Harbor. Indonesian nationalists began cooperating with
the Japanese as a step toward independence, and he joined the Japanese-sponsored Volunteer Army, reaching the rank
of commander.
After the Japanese surrender he joined the independence forces, emerging as a lieutenant colonel, steeped in anticolonialism
and anti-Communism.
In 1947 he married Siti Hartinah; they had six children, Siti Hardiyanti Hastuti Rukmana, Sigit Harjojudanto, Bambang
Trihatmodjo, Siti Hediati, Hutomo Mandala Putra and Siti Hutami Endang Adiningsih, who survive, along with 11 grandchildren
and a great-grandchild.
After attending the army staff and command school, he was made a brigadier general and placed in charge of intelligence.
He rose to command the army’s new Strategic Reserve Force, the position he held when the six generals were killed
in 1965. On that night he was visiting his youngest child in a hospital, and it was said that that was how he escaped
assassination.
Despite the allegations of human-rights abuses and corruption, Mr. Suharto escaped prosecution, evidence of the
influence he retained long after he was forced from power. In 2000 the government charged him with having embezzled
more than $600 million, but later dropped the charges because he was in ill health. After Time magazine reported
that he had stolen up to $15 billion, he sued for defamation, and lost twice in lower courts before the Supreme
Court ruled in his favor last year.
In July, prosecutors filed a civil suit, which is still pending, seeking $1.1 billion in damages for embezzling.
And in December, an investigation was announced into six cases of human-rights abuses, including the killing of
more than half a million people in the ’60s.
Because of a stroke and other ailments, he was said to have brain damage and trouble communicating. But in November,
after obtaining the verdict against Time, he gave a rare interview to an Indonesian news magazine. Asked about
the accusations of corruption, he laughed. “It’s all empty talk,” he said. “Let them accuse me. The fact is I have
never committed corruption.”
|
|
Suharto
NYTimes y, May 27, 2009
For 30 years, almost everything in Indonesia revolved around one man:
Suharto.
As a young general, Suharto -- who like many of his fellow Indonesians used only one name -- was one of the few
military leaders to escape the attempted coup that in 1965 ousted Sukarno, the left-leaning strongman who was then
president for life. As a wave of killing swept across the country, Suharto took control, although he left Sukarno
in place as a figurehead before naming himself president in 1968.
Ruling with a heavy hand, Suharto kept the country together -- no mean feat in a land of 200 million people comprising
300 ethnic groups speaking 250 languages and inhabiting more than 17,000 islands spread over a 3,500-mile archipelago.
The country's economy also grew strongly, as did Suharto's personal fortune and those of his family members, who
became billionaires many times over.
Then came the Asian economic crisis, when the country's currency plummeted.
Unrest grew as Suharto seemed unable to cope with the country's economic situation. After 500 students died in
protests, he stepped down on May 21, 1998. He offered an apology to the nation but managed to avoid prosecution
by claiming ill health. He died in Jakarta on Jan. 27, 2008 at 86. — Jan. 27, 2008
|
Ex president Suharto dies 01/27/2008
On Sunday, President
Yudhoyono called on the nation
to thank the former leader for his services to the Indonesian nation.
| |
|
|
| |
|
The Australian: Released papers implicate Suharto 02/01/08
|
|
NY Times: Suharto 01/31/08
|
|
NY Times: The Suharto billions 01/31/08 (01/16/98)
|
|
TheAge.com:White
House gave Suharto an easy ride 01/30/08
|
|
News.com: Chasing Suharto's
millions 01/30/08
|
|
Bloomberg: Suharto's corrupt legacy lives on 01/29/08
|
|
Suharto:
A Declassified Documentary Obit
National
Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 242
Posted January 28, 2008
|
|
SFgate: In Indonesia, Suharto's "divided" legacy
|
|
Bloomberg: Suharto is buried as Indonesia debates his legacy 01/28/08
|
|
LA Times: Indonesian ruler left mixed legacy 01/28/08
|
|
The Economist: In death, Suharto cheats justice 01/28/08
|
|
Washington Post: Indonesia's Despotic 'Father of Development' 01/28/08
|
|
Washington Post: Former President Suharto 1921-2008 01/28/08
Suharto, one of the world's longest-serving leaders, was
born on June 8, 1921,
and became the second president of Indonesia after independence.
» LAUNCH PHOTO GALLERY
|
|
ABCnews:
State Funeral For Former Indonesian President Suharto 01/28/08
|
|
ABCnews:
Key Dates in Suharto's Rise and Fall 01/28/08
A key US ally in the Cold War
|
|
BBC:
Asian press bid Suharto farewell
01/28/08
A day after his death, newspapers in Asia give their verdicts
on former Indonesian President Suharto. There is much praise for his economic achievements, but strong criticism
over human rights abuses committed under his rule
|
|
MSNBC:
The life of a strongman
Suharto ruled Indonesia for 32 years before being forced from office, and even then he wielded influence over the
country’s ruling elite
|
|
MSNBC:
Indonesians bury controversial Suharto 01/28/08
|
|
CNN: Suharto's body taken to hometown 01/28/08
|
|
NYT: In Death, Ex-Dictator Elicits Grief and Tributes 01/28/08
|
|
SMH: Strongman Soeharto 01/28/08
|
|
SMH: Five facts about Soeharto 01/28/08
|
|
SMH: Dictator resigned after riot debacle 01/28/08
|
|
SMH: Soeharto 'patronising' towards Australia 01/28/08
|
|
SMH: No end to ambition 01/28/08
|
|
Reuters:
Indonesian press reaction to Suharto's death 01/28/08
|
|
Reuters:Asia
papers bid Suharto a frank but not fond farewell 01/28/08
|
|
ABCnews:
US Offers Condolences on Suharto Death, Cold War Ally
01/27/08
"President Bush expresses his condolences to the
people of Indonesia on the loss
of their former president," said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House's National Security Council.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called Suharto an
"influential leader" who presided over the world's fourth most populous country, and its largest Islamic
nation, during critical times.
|
|
ABCnews:
Key Dates in Suharto's Rise and Fall 01/28/08
A key US ally in the Cold War
|
| |
|
People lining the streets in Jakarta along the route to airport
|
| |
| |
|
|
| |
|
President and Mrs. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono join with
Soeharto's relatives
and offer prayers before the body of former Indonesian president Soeharto
at his house in Jakarta on Sunday. 01/27/08
Photo: AP
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
Family Cemetery: Astana Giribangun, Solo
Suharto will be buried besides his wife Tien Suharto
|
| |
|
Mrs. Siti Hartinah (Tien) Suharto died 26 April 1996
|
| |
MSNBC: Family rushes
to side of Suharto
Two physicians call former dictator's deteriorating condition 'alarming'
|
Indonesia
repeals Suharto ruling
BBCnews: 16 April 2009
Indonesia's Supreme Court has reversed a two-year-old libel conviction
against Time magazine, in a move that is being seen as a victory for press freedom.
It means the publication no longer has to pay $106m (£70m) in damages to the estate of late President Suharto.
A 1999 cover story alleged his family had amassed a multi-billion dollar fortune during his 32-years in office.
Since the initial trial, a corruption watchdog has estimated that Mr Suharto stole as much as $35bn while in power.
Last year the Indonesian courts ruled that his heirs were liable for some of the embezzled money.
|
| |
|
Suharto
Inc.
Time: It' all in the family 05/31/99
|
| |
| |
|
BBC:
Suharto suffers blood infection 01/15/08
|
|
MSNBC: Related photos 01/08
|
|
MSNBC:
The Life of a strongman 01/08
|
|
Reuters: Suharto ill as country prepares for his death 01/13/08
|
|
Reuters:
Suharto's Rise and Fall 01/13/08
|
|
Telegraph: Suharto on his deathbed 01/13/01
General Suharto, the former dictator of Indonesia, appeared
on the brink of death last night, after suffering multiple organ failure. His family was at his bedside in a Jakarta
hospital where he was brought a week ago.
|
|
freep.com Suharto placed on ventilator01/12/08
JAKARTA, Indonesia — The former Indonesian dictator Suharto
suffered organ failure Friday and was placed on a ventilator, losing consciousness as his family rushed to his
bedside, some praying and reciting verses from the Quran.
|
|
BBC:
Life in pictures: Indonesia's Suharto 01/08
|
|
BBC:
Suharto health improves slightly 01/12/08
|
|
BBC:
Suharto suffers organ failure 01/12/08
|
|
indahnesia.com : Suharto losing consciousness, Kalla arrives
at hospital 01/11/08
Former president Suharto was losing consciousness, the hospital treating
him said, and the Vice President had been summoned to his bedside to witness the 86-year-old's death. Suharto was
losing consciousness and having difficulty breathing at 17:00 local time (08:00 GMT). on Friday, according to a
statement released at 8.30 p.m. by Pertamina hospital in Jakarta where he is being treated.
|
|
CNN: Suharto shows alarming decline 01/11/08
|
|
BBC:
Suharto condition deterioratings 01/08/08
|
|
BBC:
Suharto's health state 'critical' 01/05/08
Indonesian ex-leader Suharto's health has worsened and
is now "critical", his doctors have told the country's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
|
|
CNN: TIME to fight $106 million Suharto fine 09/12/07
|
|
BBC:
Time vows to fight Suharto ruling 09/11/07
|
|
BBC:
TIME ordered to pay Suharto $106 million 09/10/07
|
|
BBC:
Suharto case begins 08/09/07
|
|
BBC:
Civil suit filed against Suharto 07/09/07
|
|
MSNBC: Suharto
leaves hospital 05/30/06
|
|
BBC:
Suharto condition deteriorating 05/23/06
|
|
BBC:
Suharto gravely ill in hospital 05/19/06
|
|
BBC:
Suharto corruption case dropped 05/12/06
|
|
Telegraph: Suharto unfit to face 320m pound trial 05/13/06
|
|
LA Times: The case against Suharto dropped 05/13/06
|
|
BBC:
Indonesia reviewing Suharto case 05/11/06
|
|
CBS: Suharto
should'nt face trial 05/08/06
|
|
BBC:
Rise and Fall of strongman Suharto 09/28/2000
|
| |
|
|
|
Seoul
Times: Suharto seriously ill 10/17/05
|
|
Guardian: Politicians visit ailing Suharto 05/12/05
|
|
BBC:
Suharto returns home 05/11/05
|
|
|
|
Newsday: Suharto's family confident he will recover 05/10/05
|
|
Jakarta
Post: Suharto's condition unstable 04/10/05
|
|
Korea Herald: Soeharto's condition unstable 05/10/05
|
|
BBC:
Suharto's condition much better 05/10/05
|
|
Reuters: Suharto in serious condition 05/09/05
|
| |
|
|
|
|
Born in Java,
June 1921
Becomes president March 1967
Modernisation programmes in the
70s and 80s raise living standards
Asian economic crisis of the 1990s
hits Indonesian economy
Spiralling prices and discontent
force him to resign in May 1998
BBC: 05/09/05
|
|
| |
|
|
|
BBC:
Indonesia's Suharto seriously ill 05/09/05
Former
Indonesian leader Suharto is in intensive care
after being taken to hospital with intestinal bleeding
|
| |
|
|
|
CNN: Indonesian dictator gravely ill 05/09/05
|
|
News.com:
Suharto in hospital 05/07/05
|
| |
|
Guardian.co.uk, Sunday 27 January 2008
Obituary
Suharto
Indonesian dictator whose 30-year rule was based on ruthless repression, cronyism and manipulation of the world's
rival superpowersJohn Gittings guardian.co.uk, Sunday 27 January 2008 13.16 GMT Article historyThe death of the
former Indonesian president Suharto at the age of 86 reminds us that even the most stubborn of dictatorships come
to an end. Despite predictions by his ruling clique that he would lead Indonesia into the 21st century, his term
of office, which began with bloodshed in 1967, ended equally bloodily in 1998.
Although known as the "smiling general", he had a complex character which, for most of his life, successfully
deflected analysis. He was acclaimed as a man of modest origins who had taken power out of disgust at the corruption
of the last years of Sukarno, Indonesia's first president, who ruled from its independence from the Netherlands
in 1949 until 1967.
For years, this myth coexisted with the public knowledge that Suharto presided
over a regime in which his closest friends controlled huge monopolies and lucrative concessions, while his children
acquired assets worth billions of dollars.
Under his rule, Indonesia became closely aligned with western interests
during the cold war and was rewarded with aid and investment to foster rapid economic growth, making fortunes for
his cronies. He favoured ambitious, but often unsound, development projects, and schemes to relocate millions of
landless peasants and open up virgin forests paved the way for the country's current environmental crisis.
Vast numbers of political opponents were killed, jailed or sent to labour camps during three decades of Suharto's
rule, with tens of thousands dying in East Timor alone following its illegal annexation in 1975.
Suharto lost his grip on power only when the Asian financial crisis of 1997 led to popular unrest over rocketing
prices and unemployment, to which he had no answer except repression.
His political career ended in May 1998, two months after he had insisted on standing for a seventh presidential
term and appointed a cabinet dominated by his old friends and family. The killing of six students by security forces
at Trisakti University on May 12 triggered a revulsion to which even Suharto had to yield.
It was grimly fitting that a regime that began in blood with the slaughter
of hundreds of thousands in an anti-communist crackdown from 1965 to1966 ended with more bloodshed. Only then could
the Suharto myth begin to be unravelled.
It had been a long journey from his birthplace, the village of Godean, around
25 miles from Jogjakarta, the former royal capital in central Java.
His father was a minor official under Dutch rule, supervising water distribution to the fields, in return for which
he was allocated two acres to farm. His mother had distant aristocratic origins, being descended from one of the
sultan of Jogjakarta's concubines some generations back. Suharto himself seems to have been rather unhappy, and
frequently changed his name through life - a Javanese device to fend off evil spirits at a time of personal failure.
His parents separated when he was small, and he then lived with relatives. He spent some time in the house of Daryatmo,
a local dukun (curer of supernatural problems), who became the first guru in his life. Such mystical guidance always
remained important to him.
He graduated from high school in 1939, working briefly in a village bank, and would later claim he lost the job
because his only sarong was accidentally torn and he could not afford to replace it. The alternative version is
that he was sacked for stealing clothes, and was ordered by the court to join the army as an alternative to prison.
The only path forward for young men in what was then the Dutch East Indies
- outside the tiny elite sent to college - was the army. Suharto joined the Royal Netherlands Indies army in 1940,
and soon became a sergeant. When the Japanese invaded in 1942, the Dutch commander in chief, Lieutenant General
Ter Poorten, surrendered precipitately. Any respect for the colonial power was lost.
Suharto, with tens of thousands of others from the disbanded force, joined Peta, the Volunteer Army of Defenders
of the Motherland, whose explicit aim was to help Japan defend Indonesia against invasion by the western allies.
In fact, nationalist leaders such as Sukarno and Mohammed Hatta used support for Japan to arouse a more general
sense of anti-imperialism.
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 adulatory biographer, OG Roeder, records in The Smiling General
(1969) that his subject was "well known for his tough, but not brutal, methods".
When, in August 1945, the Japanese surrender brought the second world war to a close, its forces were ordered by
the allies to prevent an Indonesian nationalist takeover. However, Peta units refused to disarm, seizing control
of several large towns.
Suharto led a raid on the Japanese garrison at Jogjakarta. In the official
account, he is also credited with foiling a communist coup against Sukarno. In a more plausible interpretation,
he supported the conspiracy when it appeared likely to succeed, but betrayed it once it had failed. Fact and myth
are equally hard to disentangle in his career.
When Indonesia gained independence in 1949 after a four-year struggle against the Dutch, Sukarno became the country's
first president. Suharto, by then a colonel in the new national army, took part in the pacification of rebellious
forces in South Sulawesi, where his troops earned a reputation for extreme brutality.
Suharto and his colleagues saw themselves as operators - and the army as the mechanism - to steer Indonesian society
through a transition beset by militant communism and Islam. Less visible than the senior generals around Sukarno,
they were waiting in the wings for the president's uneasy coalition of Muslims, the PKI and the army to crumble.
That moment came on September 30 1965, when the PKI leader, DN Aidit (apparently acting on his own), and a small
group of leftwing officers launched a botched coup in which six senior generals were killed. Suharto, who mysteriously
survived, quickly suppressed the uprising.
Over the next six months, army units and local vigilante groups launched
a nationwide purge of so-called communists, a catch-all label that included labour and civic leaders and thousands
of others who would never have even heard of Karl Marx. Most were shot, stabbed, beaten to death or thrown down
wells in acts of horrifying violence.
The purge was masterminded by Suharto, who soon persuaded President Sukarno to vest in him leadership of the armed
forces, and used trusted officers to carry it out. It is thought up to 600,000 were killed.
Suharto, while professing complete loyalty to the president, quickly marginalised Sukarno. And by March 1966, Sukarno
had transferred most of his power to Suharto, who became acting president a year later. By March 1968, he was formally
elected president by the tame provisional parliament. Sukarno remained under house arrest till his death in 1970.
Suharto shrewdly retained Sukarno's pancasila ideology, first put forward as Indonesian state philosophy in 1945
- the five vague principles were a belief in God, national unity, humanitarianism, social justice and democracy.
He presented his own regime as a rational choice between communism and Islamism, with occasional forays against
overseas Chinese business interests.
Under Suharto, Indonesia enjoyed a favourable international climate. His
regime was applauded by the west for its "suppression of communism", a policy the US covertly encouraged.
It also won approval from Moscow, which had regarded the PKI's close links with China with alarm.
Over the following decade, US oil companies invested
more than $2bn in Indonesia's petroleum industry, accounting for 90% of the country's total production.
More than 1.5 million people were "transmigrated" from Java and Bali to relieve population pressure and
colonise outlying islands.
Suharto gained his biggest reward for destroying the Indonesian left when he invaded
East Timor in December 1975, only a day after the US president, Gerald Ford, and his secretary of state, Henry
Kissinger, had dined with him.
As secret documents obtained in 2001 by the independent
Washington-based
National Security Archive would reveal, Suharto asked for US "understanding
if we
deem it necessary to take rapid or drastic action".
In reply, Ford told Suharto: "We will understand
and will not press you on the issue."
Proclaiming a "new order", Suharto confined domestic politics to setpiece elections contested by two
federations of former parties and an army-dominated body, Golkar, which had no party members but won 60% to 70%
of the vote.
It seemed a recipe for an Iranian-style upheaval, but Suharto survived the
growth of discontent through the ruthless use of an intelligence apparatus. Muslim militants were jailed and social
protest suppressed. More subtly, the older politicians whom he had supplanted were allowed to form an ineffective
"group of 50" in 1980.
Suharto's real talent lay in manipulating the military elite on which he relied and yet needed to divide and rule.
Those he depended on most would find themselves discarded when they might threaten to become too powerful.
However, the 1990s saw a revival of labour unrest. The biggest source of dissent was a huge growth in cronyism
and the blatant pursuit of financial gain by the Suharto family.
Such nepotism was not essential for the Suharto regime - it reflected his adoption of a ruling style increasingly
akin to that of a traditional Javanese king. The village in which he had been born was graced with a palace, and
it was ordained that he should be buried in the nearby family mausoleum, echoing the royal custom of hilltop interment.
Following nationwide protests, he resigned in May 1998, having finally lost the confidence of even his own military
clique.
After a year's silence, the former president emerged to deny claims he had amassed a fortune, filing a suit against
Time magazine for publishing detailed allegations. There were suggestions he had threatened to implicate other
members of the Jakarta elite if the investigation proved too vigorous.
After suffering a stroke, his lawyers claimed he was too ill to be questioned
by the attorney general. In April 2000, he was banned from leaving Jakarta. He was later ruled unfit to stand trial
on physical and mental grounds.
He is survived by his six children, among them Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, who served four years in
prison for hiring a hitman to assassinate the judge who had convicted him of corruption.
|
| New
Order under Suharto |
Chronology of people's revolt |
| New Order |
Reform needed to defuse
bomb |
| 1965 Suharto's
rise |
Medan's madness |
| The
1965 Coup and its Aftermath |
Seven days in May |
| Elusive
1965 documents |
Rising unrest |
| The New
Order |
The military is on guard |
| President
Suharto |
Is a time bomb ticking ? |
| Suharto |
Political opposition |
| Rise of Suharto, Fall
of Sukarno |
Steve Hanke advising
Suharto |
| From
villager to patriarch |
Currency Board-Suharto's
gamble |
| President
Suharto |
Foreign
policy under Suharto |
| Suharto (photo) |
Protests
move to capital |
| Fortress Suharto |
A city goes mad |
| 1996 Sizing up Suharto
shares |
Violence
shatters image |
| 1996 Feeling the pressure |
Up, down and across |
| Crony crew |
Supermarket
burned in protest |
| Tycoons: Pay Up or face
Tax man |
Total anarchy May 14, 1998 |
| Now for the hard part |
What Next? May 15, 1998 |
| Tien Suharto- In mourning |
Military on Alert May 18, 1998 |
| Health concerns send tremors |
Students massacred |
| The First Family's Affairs |
Students agony and anger |
| Suharto's son Bambang
rises |
Timeline of students turmoil |
| Suharto Inc. Network |
President
speech May 19, 1998 |
| Throne Contenders |
May 19, 1998 Refuses to resign |
| Feast and famine |
Students protest at parliament |
| Resting on a secure base |
Student sit-in May 20, 1998 |
| The enemy within |
Student
protests shake regime |
| Inside the volcano |
Students demand political reform |
| Divided they stand, for
now |
Cabinet Reshuffle |
| Quick financial cure? |
Suharto's
siege |
| Facing up to fiscal reality |
Military mobilised for
mass repression |
| The Asian Financial Crisis |
Wiranto
sides with Suharto |
| The Fall of Peregrine |
Parliament to ask Suharto to go |
| Effect on Singapore |
Day of reckoning |
| Singapore and Indonesia |
May 21, 1998 Resigns |
| Middle class has
emerged |
Suharto resigns May 21, 1998 |
| Class struggle |
Suharto bows out |
| Military backs orfderly
transition |
I seek forgiveness |
| Reeling markets |
Resignation Speech |
| Marcos and Suharto |
Resignation
Speech |
| Entrenched cronies vs technocrats |
Suharto
Resignation speech |
| Now the hard part |
Resigns, names successor |
| 1995 Unsettling
for business |
Indonesia in
flames |
| Suharto and the Islamic
Movement |
A Political Obituary |
| Proposed buget 1998 |
Shrewd dictator |
| Indispensibility
may save him |
End of an Epoch |
| Children
turned to business |
Analysis: End
of an era |
| Report on Indonesia 1967 |
Search for long-term successor |
| Meeting Bishop Belo |
Surrended
power but not wealth |
| Religious disharmony |
Valued servant of the U.S. |
| Leaving little to chance |
The crimes of Suharto |
| Well-connected candidates |
US relations: Commerce
first |
| McMasters-New
Order |
US secret support for Suharto |
| Seeking
seventh term |
On the brink |
| Seventh term March 11, 1998 |
Annus Horribilis |
| March 98 cabinet |
WSJ - Down and Out |
| Tutut going for leadership |
How the New Order collapsed |
| WP-Timeline
since 1997 |
Jakarta's May Revolution |
| BBC-5 more years |
Analysis-End of Suharto |
| Capitalism-Stealthy foe |
Suharto's fall and background |
| A Javanese king talks of
his end |
Businessweek: Regime on
the Ropes |
| US: Piercing an Army's Veil |
End of New Order |
| International leaders call for reform |
Wilson Qrtrly: End of New Order |
| G8 leaders call for reform |
Schwarz: Turmoil in Indonesia |
| US urges reform |
Information highway too
fast |
| Privatising social justice |
Analysing end of Suharto |
| All the President's Children |
Growth, not Greed |
| Nepotism,
Cronyism |
World
Reaction to resignation |
| Cashing-in
on years of power |
His soldiers may be
his judges |
| Suharto domineert Indonesia |
Portrait of Indonesia after
Suharto |
| US Arms Sales to Indonesia |
In Focus:
Indonesia after Suharto |
| Clinton call to Suharto |
A regime on the ropes |
| Pentagon
training elite team |
Transition analysis |
| Joint excercises with Australia |
Indonesia
moves beyond Suharto |
| Perils of nonconformity |
Their Suharto
and ours |
| Bob Hasan - Suharto's man |
His
Fall from Power |
| Suharto-wayang
play |
Career
Highlights |
| SMH-King Java |
Suharto system hard to uproot |
| Puppet Master |
The
Suharto Shadow |
| Suharto Grip on Wealth |
Special
Report Jan 2000 |
| Time -
Suharto Incorporated |
Bangkok
Post - His place in history |
| BBC-Suharto's millions |
Rise of Suharto, Fall
of Sukarno |
| CNN-All
in the Family |
President
Suharto and New Order |
| Rioters torch upper-class aspirations |
Suharto's end game |
| Indonesia's
slow burn |
1999 Elections-New
Order |
| Too hot for business |
Dictator from Day One |
| Chinese flee |
A Bloodless
coup |
| Neighbours evacuate nationals |
Suharto's Archipel |
| Freeport and Irian Jaya |
Trouble for Smiling General |
| Chinese merchant rebuilds |
10 Days that shook Indonesia
1 |
| Son-in-law under fire |
10 Days that shook Indonesia
2 |
| Prabowo faces trial |
10 Days that shook Indonesia
3 |
| Irian
Jaya and East Timor |
10 Days that shook Indonesia
4 |
| Unchallenged leader |
10 Days that shook Indonesia
5 |
| The May 1998 riots |
10 Days that shook the nation
6 |
| Australian secret support |
Suharto's last stand |
| Let them eat the
cake |
WP: Probe in finances |
| Indonesia's
second chance |
Double standards in coverage |
| Sinar
Harapan newspaper banned |
Whitewashing Suharto |
| Analysis:
His millions |
Last of
a Breed |
| Personal Data |
His fall from power |
| US Corporate Connection |
Speech that ended an epoch |
| From
poverty to President |
Suharto's legacy |
| Our man in Jakarta |
Student revolution |
| Lessons of history |
Indonesia in
Flames |
| Behind the riots |
People Power |
| Petition
of Fifty |
The secret of survival |
| Indonesians
resist |
Avoiding further tragedy |
| Rupiah
Rasputin |
Rise
and fall of a strongman |
| 50 Most Powerful in Asia 1996 |
Timeline Suharto's
Fall |
| US Funding for opposition
groups |
The Fall of Suharto |
| Suharto's downfall |
City Arrest |
| The Fall of Suharto |
Suharto questioned |
| Rebuilds
base to shield fortune |
The main players |
| Always the
best revenge |
Exposing the
hidden hand |
| Indonesia's
slow burn |
Indonesia - Dashed Hopes |
| Government
Investigation |
US knew of activist
abductions |
| Report on May1998 riots |
Power of the disappeared |
| Academic Freedom |
"Disappeared"
student's testimony |
| BCA: Suharto's kiss of
death |
Chasing after the past |
| Crucial
days ahead |
Living outside
the limelight |
| Corruption
probe |
Gus Dur on Suharto |
| Placed
under City Arrest |
Suharto
- The Hidden hand |
| Too
ill for questioning? |
Suharto:
Shades of Pinochet? |
| Inquiry
: Digging up past agonies |
Student
protests in Jakarta |
| House
Arrest May 29, 2000 |
Suharto billions sneaking back? |
| Suharto Alone |
Suharto
confined to home |
| Suharto's Family Business |
History catches up with Suharto |
| Suharto
money in US and Europe |
Suharto family negotiating deal |
| Business Week : Pay back time |
Agreement within reach |
| SCMP: Suharto's New Order |
The Boom years |
| Leaving dangerously |
Interim Habibie rule |
| Suharto's overthrow |
Accusing
Suharto supporters |
| Suharto - A bloody legacy |
Bomb scare in AG office |
| WSWS-The Fall of
Suharto |
The misguided
fireman |
| Negotiating with govt |
Suharto supporters accused |
| Key Dates |
Office
block seized |
| Wahid supports 1965 killing probe |
Politics
or Justice? |
| Suharto's
Fiery legacy |
The investigation |
| Suharto to
be indicted |
Suharto to be charged with corruption |
| Suharto
faces corruption charges |
Preparing
to charge Suharto |
| $155
M corruption charge |
Photo collection |
| Suharto formally charged |
Facing
Trial |
| Suharto's
Fortune |
Analysis
- Suharto case |
| Shades
of Pinochet |
Formally
charged |
| BW:
Suharto's moment of truth |
The
Key Players in the case |
| The children and business |
A look at Suharto's fiefdom |
| Charged
with corruption |
Charges filed |
| Corruption
charges filed |
FEER - Suharto's Record |
| Day of reckoning |
Trial
date set for Aug 31 |
| Trial of the Century |
Suharto Military Dictatorship |
| Protesters
stage pro-Suharto rally |
The End Game |
| Double or nothing |
Suharto got Clinton kickbacks |
| Kings don't fall lightly |
Suharto's cronies |
| Shoving Suharto
aside |
Suharto resigns |
| Seize the New Zealand assets |
Linked to violence |
| Suharto,
last of a breed |
Roots
of a revolution |
| From
riot to resignation |
Suharto speaks |
| Suharto
Trial postponed |
Rise
and Fall of strongman |
| Suharto
fails to show up |
Indonesia seeks redemption |
| Too
ill for trial |
Suharto
too sick |
| Chronology
of probe |
Led
Indonesia from chaos, and back |
| Dictator's
Disease |
Daftar kekayaan |
| Chronology
of probe |
Trial adjourned |
| Trial
must proceed |
Doubts
Suharto will go on trial |
| Legal drama
in Jakarta |
Trial
delayed |
| Related
stories |
Where did the billions
go? |
| Money Trail |
Suharto
Money-siphoning case |
| Ford, Kissinger
Suharto July 5, 1975 |
Indonesia vs Suharto |
| Petition
of 50 |
US Senator Biden
on resignation |
| Indonesia's
Killing fields |
From president to prisoner |
| FEER - Long journey to justice |
"New Order agents" behind bombing?
|
| Focus
on Suharto supporters |
Suharto
cronies suspected |
| Suharto
trial linked to violence |
Wahid-Evidence
against Tommy |
| Suharto's
son ordered arrested |
Tommy Suharto ordered arested |
| Wahid
orders arrest Tommy Suharto |
Suharto's
Playboy son |
| Indonesia's
judiciary |
Tommy
Suharto in bomb probe |
| Suharto's
son linked to bombing |
Tommy Suharto's denies involvement |
| Suharto's
hand felt |
Suharto
son suspected |
| Suharto son cleared |
Sick
man of Asia |
| Suharto's Archipel 1 |
His top 8 crimes |
| Suharto 's Archipel 2 |
Mohamed Suharto |
| Suharto's Archipel 3 |
|
| Suharto's Archipel 4 |
|
| |
|
editor indonesia-pusaka
|