Ex-strongman Soeharto, still at large and larger than life
Wimar Witoelar, Jakarta
Time stood still for a moment on the morning of May 21, 1998. Millions of hearts skipped a beat upon hearing the announcement on television. President Soeharto was stepping down from power. Disbelief was followed by amazement as pictures appeared of a hastily conducted ceremony at Merdeka Palace. A tired-looking Soeharto stepped aside in favor of a tense-looking B.J. Habibie. Many felt the fall was coming, but one is never prepared for such an historical moment.
Ever since March 11, 1966, Soeharto had been a constant in Indonesian nationhood. Wherever the political winds blew, Soeharto was unquestionably the dominant factor in Indonesia. People were either for him or against him. A vast majority supported him in 1966. Soeharto's "New Order" met with enthusiastic public acclaim. But the democratic hopes were dashed as the masses got restless in 1969, 1974, 1978, 1989. Finally, expressions of disenchantment escalated from 1996 to 1998 and triggered the downfall.
Even when his corruption and human rights atrocities were uncovered, Soeharto remained a formidable figure. Four presidents, including the current one, were unable to bring him to justice. His family and cronies remain free, prosperous and impervious to public recrimination. A few criminals close to Soeharto did spend time in prison, but they got soft treatment. Soeharto money still floats around, his investments thrive and his interests lurk behind political and commercial interests.
He has always maintained a quiet style featuring personal restraint and discipline. This low-key personal approach coupled with great power enabled unimpeded political navigation to secure his position. He showed patience and grace under pressure. Soeharto never showed panic, morphing from public enemy to elder statesman without leaving his home. Foreign investors admired him and even now associate him with stability and prosperity. One cannot blame international investors because the mistreatment of his nation was swept under the rug.
Soeharto brought prosperity to the people, but its distribution was skewed. Loyalists were handsomely rewarded; common people were ignored and dissenters disappeared without a trace. Dozens of expensive homes in Jakarta hint at the wealth accumulated by former Cabinet ministers who legitimized his corrupt schemes. His sons took most of the blame but low-profile ministers amassed assets like luxury houses for their sons, daughters and in-laws. The second generation of the Soeharto profiteers now have become respectable businesspeople. Some have even become public officials.
Students and activists flail wildly against the Soeharto crimes, while smooth lawyers provide Teflon screens of immunity to the scions of the New Order. The presence of Rolls-Royces, Jaguars, Ferraris and Cadillacs on the congested streets of Jakarta today indicate the money Soeharto generates for lawyers, accountants and generally useful people serving his family and cronies.
This is more or less the legacy of the Soeharto presidency now, seven years after his fall. Seven years into his term of power, the picture was vastly different. In 1973, the hugely successful reconstruction of Indonesia's political and economic landscape received a bonus in the historic oil price increase achieved by OPEC. By 1980, Jakarta had caught up with Manila, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur as cosmopolitan capitals, resplendent with five-star hotels, air-conditioned office buildings and a glittery nightlife.
To the New Order's credit, improvements also followed in the social sphere. They were never proportionate to the fortune bestowed on the elite, but development indices did not show this. Rice self-sufficiency, exports, literacy rates, infrastructure and education all received applause from the United Nations, the World Bank and a number of multinational institutions.
The time span of the New Order is matched in recent history only by Cuba's Fidel Castro. Soeharto survived -- politically -- American Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush Sr. before facing Bill Clinton's strong human rights lens at the end of the New Order. Countless Prime Ministers and two Popes knew him as President and generations of Cabinet ministers succeeded each other for 32 years. Children returning home after spending time in the U.S. would ask why there were so many presidents in America, but only two in Indonesia.
Even now, with the sixth President of Indonesia in office, only two really count in historical terms, Sukarno and Soeharto. They were the truly powerful ones, with significant differences. While Sukarno invited breathless emotions in the range of love and hate, Soeharto was neither massively adored nor loathed. He was generally respected for his effectiveness, but quietly resented for his suffocating control. Statistics generally protect Soeharto as his misdeeds have not been formally proven. His crimes are horrendous and his victims stretch out from Tanjung Priok to East Timor, from the Petrus killings (mysterious killings) to the May riots. And yet, formal observers do not always portray him as a world-class enemy of human dignity and civil rights.
From a personal perspective, Soeharto appeared in 1966 to rescue the nation from ruin as Communists were presented as a public terror. Sukarnoists defended themselves poorly as Sukarno allowed himself to be identified with the Communists. Soeharto The Hero, drove his jeep from his home in Menteng to the presidential palace. He still managed to maintain his low-key image when his home burgeoned into blocks of high-security mansions. However, he became isolated as his public appearances were limited to highly controlled situations. He started out with strong support from democratically minded Army generals, and lost power decades later when hardline generals turned the New Order into an arrogant display of absolute power.
It is difficult to be objective about Soeharto's public record. Power co-opted the bulk of his opposition, while isolating the diehards. Soeharto touched millions of human lives. All Indonesians above the age of 25 have something of Soeharto in them. His presence meant betterment of many lives at the cost of public deprivation. It needs some reflection to reduce Soeharto to simple terms. Without legal power to support their cause, protests become shrill and mercenary, and legal arguments always win out. It will take time to vindicate the public ills that Soeharto has wrought in this country.
The writer is a political commentator.