SUHARTO LEAVES A LEGACY OF STABILITY IN INDONESIA
Bloomberg News Online - January 28, 2008By Berni Moestafa and Karima Anjani
Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Former Indonesian President Suharto's death leaves a nation split between demanding justice for alleged abuses committed during his 32-year rule and forgiving a leader who brought stability and economic growth.
The dictator, forced out of power in 1998, died of multiple organ failure at a hospital in Jakarta yesterday at the age of 86. ``If father has made mistakes, we ask that he be forgiven,'' Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, his daughter, said.
Suharto's ``authoritarian system temporarily created stability and welfare,'' said J. Kristiadi, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta. ``But it lacked the process of democracy to uphold human rights and eventually rotted from within.''
The former dictator's rule, one of Asia's longest, saw the economy expand 6.1 percent annually in the 1980s, making it among the 10 fastest growing, according to the World Bank. Yet he was ousted amid economic strife and violent pro-democracy protests as critics alleged his family and friends, with interests in businesses from trading cloves to transporting petrochemicals, benefited the most from the country's expansion.
Suharto's coffin, draped in Indonesia's red and white flag, arrived by military plane in Solo, central Java province, for burial at his family's cemetery today. Thousands of people earlier gathered at his Jakarta residence to pay their respects. The government has declared a seven-day mourning period.
`Cruel' Regime
Cindy Robertha Biere, a movie editor, said she's willing to forgive Suharto's ``cruel'' rule of Indonesia because his regime also brought stability to a nation with 300 ethnic groups and about 18,000 islands. ``He ruled the nation in his own way, with cruelty sometimes,'' said Biere after Suharto's death was announced over a public-address system in a Jakarta mall.
Suharto, sometimes called ``the smiling general,'' ensured no deputy developed a power base by installing six vice presidents in his seven terms.
He is alleged to have stolen as much as $35 billion, or 1.3 percent a year on average of Indonesia's gross domestic product, according to a report published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in September. Mohammad Assegaf, Suharto's lawyer, has said the UN report is ``nonsense.''
His family amassed a fortune of as much as $15 billion in cash, property, art, jewelry and jet planes, according to a 1999 Time magazine article.
Libel Suit
Indonesia's Supreme Court last year ordered Time Warner Inc. to pay Suharto 1 trillion rupiah ($107 million) in damages in a libel suit for publishing the article. Time magazine is challenging the ruling.
The government last year filed civil cases against Suharto seeking to recover $1.5 billion.
``I think a trial is needed,'' said Muhamad Maksun, a Jakarta taxi driver. ``It hopefully will help Suharto in the afterlife.''
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sent condolences to the government and people of Indonesia and said Suharto's rule was an ``important period'' in the country's history.
``Though there may be some controversy over his legacy, President Suharto was a historic figure,'' U.S. Ambassador Cameron R. Hume said in an e-mailed statement. Suharto `` left a lasting imprint on Indonesia and the region.''
Life Expectancy
Under Suharto, per-capita income in Asia's third-most populous nation quadrupled and the ratio of those living in absolute poverty declined from more than three people in five to about one in 10 by 1998. Life expectancy grew from 49 years in the early 1970s to 66 in 1999, the World Bank said.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called the former leader ``one of the nation's finest sons'' and asked Indonesians to give him the ``highest respect.''
A 1965 coup attempt, cast as a communist plot, and the overthrow of President Sukarno, Indonesia's first, marked a turning point for the nation. Suharto's rise to power was followed by the killing of more than 500,000 people in civil unrest, most accused of having ties to communists.
He also ordered the invasion of East Timor in 1975 after the colonial power, Portugal, was forced out.
The invasion, supported by the U.S. according to declassified State Department documents, resulted in the deaths of more than 100,000 East Timorese by the time the country gained independence in 1999, the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in Timor-Leste, as the country is now called, said in a report.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said in a statement Suharto was a ``controversial figure in respect of human rights and East Timor.''
Rudd paid tribute to his role in modernizing Indonesia and helping establish the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Suharto was a ``well respected man'' while in office and thanked him for his efforts to improve ties with Malaysia.
To contact the reporters on this story: Berni Moestafa in Jakarta at bmoestafa@bloomberg.net ; Karima Anjani in Jakarta at kanjani@bloomberg.net
Source: Bloomberg News Online - www.bloomberg.net