Soeharto: A soldier who never abandons the battlefield

Soeharto: A soldier who never abandons the battlefield

Soeharto and B.J. Habibie are the names likely to steal
headlines in the coming days. They are the sole candidates for
president and vice president respectively in the ongoing session
of the People's Consultative Assembly. Sri Wahyuni explores the
backgrounds of the two statesmen in the following articles.

JAKARTA (JP): Barring major catastrophe, the People's
Consultative Assembly will reelect and swear in President
Soeharto to his seventh consecutive term on Wednesday.

Soeharto has indicated several times his reluctance to take
another term at Indonesia's helm, citing his wish to lengser
keprabon, madeg pandhita. The Javanese term means he is willing
to step down and act as pundit, instead, to his successor.

But Golkar insisted on renominating him. And the economic
crisis helped steer Soeharto for another term in office because,
as some loyalists had observed, he is a soldier who would never
abandon the battlefield.

Successful development programs and political stability had
been the hallmark of Soeharto's previous six five-year terms of
office. But this time around, the economic crisis and the
declining confidence in the government may prove to be his
toughest battlefield.

Political observer Arbi Sanit, of the University of Indonesia,
pointed at various flaws and glitches in Soeharto's
administration that have become apparent over the past several
years.

"The monetary crisis and the decline in the people's trust in
the government are obviously waiting for him to handle them,"
Arbi said.

Soeharto himself, in his accountability speech before the
1,000 members of the People's Consultative Assembly last Sunday,
acknowledged the challenges.

"But, we had to go through a much harder trial. Since the
middle of last year, the monetary turmoil has hit us so
unexpectedly. The region was engulfed in a financial crisis. Then
it became eventually more serious ...," he said.

Arbi and several colleagues passed on the blame to Soeharto's
aides, whom they said lacked capability and had poor
coordination.

He said the cabinet ministers had failed to accommodate
societal changes, which were actually the result of development
carried out by Soeharto's administration. He also said the
development had been concentrated on economic growth at the
expense of political development.

"As a result, those cabinet ministers were not prepared to
accommodate, they even rejected, changes."

Better

Political observer Marzuki Darusman agreed, adding that the
first five administrations were considerably better than the last
term -- at least in its final years.

He said one of the factors responsible for the situation was
that the outgoing cabinet comprised people from backgrounds too
diverse.

"This never happened before, and the (lack of cohesiveness)
caused the cabinet to be ineffective," Marzuki said.

Political observer Amir Santoso, who is also a Golkar
legislator, agreed.

"I see the imperfection of the outgoing government is caused
by the incapability of the aides in interpreting Pak Harto's
will. It's certainly not Pak Harto's fault," said Amir, who is
also a lecturer at the University of Indonesia.

Another shortcoming of the outgoing cabinet, according to
Amir, was poor coordination among ministers. "You can see this in
the numerous instances ministers gave different explanations
about one issue," he said.

However, Amir admires the way Soeharto has been dealing with
the crisis. "As always, he does not panic and is able to manage
the pressure from the IMF," he said. The International Monetary
Fund has pledged a US$43 billion rescue package in exchange for
Indonesia's economic reform.

Amir believes the crisis has indirectly proved Soeharto's
superiority from other world leaders. "During this time of
crisis, it is other world leaders who visit him and offer help,
not the other way around," he said.

"Basically, he is a great leader who has successfully united
this big country and turned it into a relatively prosperous one.
About the monetary crisis, it not happening only in Indonesia, is
it?"

Key

For the past 30 years in Indonesian history, regardless of the
crisis facing him, Soeharto was indeed the key figure.

He successfully established a systematic development framework
-- known as the Five-Year Development Program (Pelita) -- to
accelerate growth while trying to accommodate political changes.
It was through this groundwork that he gradually established
stability throughout the country.

His achievement in economic development was considered by many
as stunning. He restored the economy from the shambles inherited
from the late president Sukarno's Old Order government, and built
it into what was, until recently, called Asia's miracle.

He brought the agricultural Indonesia into the era of
industrialization, so that it is now called a newly
industrialized country.

Poverty

Born on June 8, 1921, in the small village of Kemusuk, Godean,
eight kilometers west of Yogyakarta, Soeharto was brought up
mostly by relatives. His mother, Sukirah, and his father,
Kertosudiro, divorced a couple of years after he was born, but
remarried later.

After being bundled from one relative to another, he was later
adopted by his uncle, Prawirowihardjo (the father of business
tycoon Sudwikatmono) who taught him much about agriculture.

He lived his childhood in poverty and spent most of his days
cattle grazing. This was the life that, later on, accounted for
his great attention to the development of agriculture and animal
husbandry in the country. After he became President, one of his
outstanding features is his ability to talk for hours with
farmers, joke with them and explain in simple language how to
increase their harvest.

During his school years, Soeharto learned Islam in a mosque
near to his home. He graduated from a Muhammadiyah Islamic school
in 1939 and became a bank clerk.

He got bored, and, switching direction, joined the Dutch
colonial army and became a corporal.

During the Japanese occupation in the early 1940s, he joined
the Japanese-trained Indonesian army. After Japan surrendered, he
fought the Dutch with the Indonesian guerrillas.

In 1957, by then a colonel, he took command of the important
Diponegoro Army division (later renamed Diponegoro Military
Command) in Central Java and became Army deputy chief of staff in
1961.

In 1965, he headed the Army's Strategic Reserves Command, a
crack force which he mobilized when a group of communist-backed
army officers killed six top generals and briefly seized
government installations. With the force he crushed the coup
attempt.

After the bloodshed, with tens of thousands of people dead, he
succeeded in convincing president Sukarno to outlaw the powerful
Indonesian Communist Party, the third largest in the world at
that time.

Soeharto was named acting president in 1967. The following
year he was installed as President by the Provisional People's
Consultative Assembly.

In 1947, he married Siti Hartinah -- who died in April 1996 --
and they had three daughters and three sons, all are married.

There were rumors last year that Soeharto would remarry after
the wedding of his youngest son Hutomo Mandala Putra to Ardhia
Pramesti Regita Cahyani. His half-brother, Probosutedjo, doused
the rumors effectively by saying it was impossible for Soeharto
to remarry as it would affect his relationship with his children.

To maintain his stamina, Soeharto plays golf and occasionally
tennis, or goes fishing in the Jakarta Bay waters. He also likes
to spend his leisure time visiting his farm in Tapos, Bogor, West
Java.

Soeharto is known to have a very "Javanese way" of dealing
with people. For instance, he expresses disagreement and
dissatisfaction discreetly. Outgoing Minister/State Secretary
Moerdiono once said that so gently and subtly does Soeharto
deliver his rebuke that the people in question sometimes
misinterpret the reprimand as praise.

Accommodative

For political scientist Riswandha Imawan of Yogyakarta-based
Gadjah Mada University, Soeharto now seems to have placed himself
as a senior leader willing to cooperate with and accommodate the
will of the people.

"He wants to be more of a supervisor, one who provides
visions, rather than a ruler," Riswandha said.

This stance would enable new players to enter Indonesia's
political game, he said.

Riswandha believes that a succession would take place in 2003.

"His (Soeharto's) toughest task now is preparing a peaceful
succession. I'm sure he will make it, so long as nothing happens
to him before 2003," he said.

He added, however, that if "something happens" to Soeharto
before he finishes his seventh term, there could be a political
turbulence.

Marzuki Darusman has a different view.

"I don't think this will be Soeharto's last term. I see no
realistic reason for such an idea. I do believe that as long as
Soeharto feels that he is healthy enough (to rule the country),
he will certainly express his readiness to hold another term," he
said.

"The hope that there will be significant changes in
Indonesia's political life, therefore, is not likely to occur,"
he added.

But Marzuki believed that should Habibie be the vice
president, with regard to his closeness to Soeharto, the
political communication in the country would find another door to
pass input through.

"Whether the inputs will be pictured in the outputs, that's
another question," he said.