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.