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Haji Mohammad Suharto

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Political People

   Haji Mohammad Suharto
   Haji Mohammad Suharto
     __________________________________________________________________

   2nd President of Indonesia
   In office
   March 12, 1967 –  May 21, 1998
   Vice President(s)   Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX (1973)
   Adam Malik (1978)
   Umar Wirahadikusumah(1983)
   Sudharmono (1988)
   Try Sutrisno (1993)
   Jusuf Habibie (1998)
   Preceded by Sukarno
   Succeeded by Jusuf Habibie
     __________________________________________________________________

   Born June 8, 1921
   Kemusuk, Yogyakarta
   Political party Golkar
   Spouse Tien Soeharto
   Profession Military

   Haji Mohammad Soeharto (born June 8, 1921), more commonly referred to
   as simply Soeharto (General Suharto in the English-speaking world), is
   a former Indonesian military and political leader. He served as a
   military officer in the Indonesian National Revolution, but is better
   known as the long-reigning second President of Indonesia, holding the
   office from 1967 to 1998.

   Suharto seized power from his predecessor, the first president of
   Indonesia Sukarno, through a mixture of force and political maneuvering
   against the backdrop of foreign and domestic unrest. Over the three
   decades of his "New Order" regime, Suharto constructed a strong central
   government along militarist lines. An ability to maintain stability and
   an avowedly anti-Communist stance won him the economic and diplomatic
   patronage of several Western governments in the era of the Cold War.
   For almost all of his three-decade rule, Indonesia experienced rapid
   industrialization and economic growth.

   In 1990's, the Suharto regime's increasingly authoritarian and corrupt
   practices became a source of much discontent. His almost unquestioned
   authority over Indonesian affairs slipped dramatically when the Asian
   financial crisis lowered Indonesians' standard of living and fractured
   his support among the nation's military, political and civil society
   institutions. After internal unrest and diplomatic isolation sapped his
   support in the mid-to-late 1990s, Suharto was forced to resign from the
   presidency in May 1998.

   After serving as the public face of Indonesia for over 30 years,
   Suharto now lives his post-presidential years in virtual seclusion. His
   legacy remains hotly debated and contested both in Indonesia and in
   foreign-policy debates in the West.

Background & career

   Suharto was born in the era of Dutch colonial control of Indonesia, in
   the hamlet of Kemusuk, a part of the larger village of Godean, 15
   kilometres west of Yogyakarta, in central Java. Escaping what was by
   many accounts a troubled childhood, he enrolled as a military officer
   in the Dutch military academy during a time when the East Indies became
   a centre of several armed conflicts, including World War II and the
   Indonesian National Revolution. Like many natives in the military,
   Suharto was forced to change allegiances several times, but his
   training enabled him to become an asset to the side he finally settled
   upon, that of the Indonesian Nationalists.

A troubled and mysterious childhood

   The facts of the childhood and youth of Suharto, according to Western
   biographies, are steeped in both mystery and myth. Standard and
   apocryphal accounts of his early years and family life exist, many
   loaded with political meaning. What may be objectively known is that
   Suharto's parents, his mother Sukirah and father Kertosudiro, were
   ethnic- Javanese and peasant class, living in an area untouched by
   electricity or running water.

   The early family life of Suharto is generally thought by scholarly
   sources to be unstable. His father Kertosudiro's marriage to Sukirah
   was his second; he already had two children from his previous marriage.
   Kertosudiro's marriage to Sukirah itself is believed to have ended in
   divorce early in Suharto's life, though exactly when is inconsistent -
   the account in Roeder's biography The Smiling General claims the
   divorce came within years of his birth; the account in Suharto's
   autobiography Pirakan states that it came within mere weeks.

   The absence of official documentation, and certain aspects of Suharto's
   early life inconsistent with that of a Javanese peasant (such as that
   Suharto received an education fairly early on) has led to several
   rumors of Suharto being an illegitimate child of a well-off benefactor.
   These rumors include Suharto possibly being the child of a Yogyakarta
   aristocrat or well-off Chinese Indonesian merchant. Though
   inconclusive, Western biographer R.E. Elson believes that such rumors
   cannot be entirely ruled out, given that much of the information
   Suharto has given on his origins has been tinged with political
   meaning.

   His parents divorced and re-married to new partners, Suharto was
   estranged from each (or both) of his parents for extended periods of
   time, bouncing around several households for much of his early life.
   The marriage of his paternal aunt to a low-level Javanese official
   named Prawirowiharjo, who took to raising Suharto as his own, is
   believed by Elson to have provided both a father-figure and role model
   for Suharto, as well as a stable home in Wuryantoro, where he received
   much of his primary education.

   As noted by Elson and others, Suharto's upbringing stood in contrast
   with that of leading Nationalists such as Sukarno, in that he is
   believed to have had little interest in anti-colonialism, or political
   concerns beyond his immediate surroundings. He was also, unlike Sukarno
   and his circle, illiterate in Dutch or other European languages. This
   would change, however, with Suharto's induction into the Dutch military
   in 1940.

Pre-Independence military career

   After a brief stint in a clerical job at a bank (from which he was
   fired), followed by a spell of unemployment, Suharto joined the Royal
   Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) in 1940, and studied in a Dutch-run
   military academy in Gombong near Yogyakarta. This unusual opportunity
   for an indigenous colonial subject came as a result of the Netherlands'
   growing need for troops as World War II widened and the threat of an
   invasion by Imperial Japan grew more likely.

   After graduation, Suharto was assigned to Battalion XIII at Rampal. His
   service there was unextraordinary, but for his contracting malaria
   requiring hospitalization while on guard duty, and then gaining
   promotion to sergeant.

   The invasion of Imperial Japanese forces and subsequent surrender of
   the Dutch forces led to Suharto's desertion from the Dutch to the
   Japanese occupation force. He first joined the Japanese sponsored
   police force at the rank of keibuho (assistant inspector), where he
   claimed to have gained his first experience in the intelligence work so
   central to his presidency ("Criminal matters became a secondary
   problem," Suharto remarked, "what was most important were matters of a
   political kind").

   Suharto shifted from police work toward the Japanese-sponsored militia,
   the Peta (Defenders of the Fatherland) in which Indonesians served as
   officers. In his training to serve at the rank of shodancho (platoon
   commander) he encountered a localized version of the Japanese bushido,
   or "way of the warrior" , used to indoctrinate troops. This training
   encouraged an anti-Dutch and pro-nationalist thought, although toward
   the aims of the Imperial Japanese militarists. The encounter with a
   nationalistic and militarist ideology is believed to have profoundly
   influenced Suharto's own way of thinking.

Service in the Indonesian National Revolution

   The Japanese surrender to the Allies in World War II brought forth the
   opportunity for the leaders of the Indonesian Nationalist cause Sukarno
   and Mohammad Hatta to hastily declare the complete independence of
   Indonesia and the beginning of the Indonesian National Revolution.
   International recognition of Indonesia's sovereignty, however, would
   only come after armed action - a task at which Suharto would prove
   himself adept.

Expulsion of the Japanese

   The Japanese surrender left Suharto in a position to create a name for
   himself as a part of the military effort to first expel the remaining
   Japanese forces, and to prepare nationalist forces for the Dutch
   attempt to retake their former colonial possessions in the archipelago.
   He became a deputy to Umar Slamet in the service of the revolutionary
   government's People's Security Body (BKR).

   Suharto claims to have led a number of attacks against remaining
   Japanese forces around Yogyakarta. The central role he commonly
   portrayed himself playing in his reminisces on the period during his
   presidency is debatable; however, it may be acknowledged that Suharto's
   familiarity with military functioning helped in the organization of the
   disparate independence forces into a unified fighting force. In the
   early years of the Revolution, Suharto organized local armed forces
   into Battalion X of Regiment I; Suharto was promoted to the rank of
   Major and became Battalion X's leader.

Return of the Dutch

   The arrival of the Allies, under a mandate to return the situation to
   the status quo ante bellum, quickly led to clashes between Suharto's
   Division X and returning Dutch forces, bolstered by Gurkhas in the
   employ of Great Britain. Political differences within both the Allies
   and the civilian Nationalist forces caused the conflict to alternate in
   intensity from the end of 1945 into first months of 1946, as
   negotiations went on between the leaderships of the Indonesian
   Nationalists and the Dutch in between periods of fighting. In this
   muddle, Suharto led his troops toward halting an advance by the Dutch T
   ("Tiger") Brigade on 17 May 1946. It earned Suharto the respect of his
   superior, Lieutenant Colonel Sunarto Kusumodirjo, who invited him to
   draft the working guidelines for the Battle Leadership Headquarters
   (MPP), a body created to organize and unify the command structure of
   the Indonesian Nationalist forces.

   The military forces of the still infant Republic of Indonesia were
   constantly restructuring. By August 1946, Suharto was head of the 22nd
   Regiment of Division III (the " Diponegoro" Division) stationed in
   Yogyakarta. In late 1946 the Diponegoro Division became responsible for
   defense of the west and south-west of Yogyakarta from Dutch forces.
   Conditions at the time are reported in Dutch sources as miserable;
   Suharto himself is reported as assisting smuggling syndicates in the
   transport of opium through the territory he controlled, in order to
   make income.

   After a period of cooling down, the Dutch-Indonesian conflict flared up
   again in 1947 as the Dutch initiated Operatie Product ("Operation
   Product"), the first of its two Politionele acties ("Police Actions")
   to recapture Indonesia. Operatie Product severely demoralized
   Indonesian forces, but diplomatic action in the United Nations granted
   a respite from the fighting in order to resume negotiation. In the
   meantime, Suharto was married to Siti Hartinah, a woman of a high class
   family that in the years of the revolution lost its prestige and
   income. Over the next 17 years the couple would have six children: Siti
   Hardiyanti Hastuti (Tutut, born 1949), Sigit Harjojudanto (born 1951),
   Bambang Trihatmodjo (born 1953), Siti Hediati (Titiek, born 1959),
   Hutomo Mandala Putra (Tommy, born 1962), and Siti Hutami Endang
   Adiningsih (Mamiek, born 1964).

   The Second Police Action, Operatie Kraai ("Operation Crow"), commenced
   in December 1948 and decimated much of the Indonesian fighting forces,
   resulting in the capture of Sukarno and Hatta, the civilian leadership
   of Indonesia. Suharto, for his part, took severe casualties as the
   Dutch invaded the area of Yogyakarta; the retreat was equally
   humiliating.

Guerrilla warfare and victory

   It is widely believed that the humiliating nature of this defeat
   engrained a sense of guilt in Suharto, as well as a sense of obligation
   to avenge his honour. Suharto, and the aggrieved Indonesian armed
   forces, attempted to do this by means of guerrilla warfare, using
   intelligence and supply networks established at the village level.
   During this time ambushes became a favored tactic; villagers were
   enlisted to attack Dutch patrols with weapons as primitive as bamboo
   spears. The desired effect was to remind the populace of the continuing
   resistance to Dutch rule. However, these attacks were largely
   ineffective and were often comparable to suicide.

   Suharto's efforts to regain the national honour culminated in an attack
   on Dutch forces at Yogyakarta on 1 March 1949. Suharto would later
   embellish his role as the singular plotter; according to more objective
   sources, however, the nationalist Sultan Hamengku Buwono IX (who still
   remained in power), as well as the Panglima of the Third Division
   ordered the attack. General Nasution would recall, however, that
   Suharto took great care in preparing the "General Offensive" (
   Indonesian" Serangan Umum).

   In a series of daring small-scale raids under cover of darkness and
   with the support of locals, Suharto's forces captured the city, holding
   it until noon. The attack yielded some ammunition and a few light arms;
   as propaganda and psychological warfare it had filled the desired
   effect, however - civilians sympathetic to the Nationalist cause within
   the city had been galvanized by the show of force, and internationally,
   the United Nations took notice, with the Security Council putting
   pressure on the Dutch to cease Police Action and to re-embark on
   negotiations. Suharto gained both national and international
   recognition of his abilities as a military planner.

   The return of the Dutch to the negotiating table all but assured,
   Suharto took an active interest in the peace agreements, though they
   were much to his dissatisfaction.

Post-Independence military career

   During the following years he served in the Indonesian National Army,
   stationed primarily on Java. His relationship with prominent
   businessmen Liem Sioe Liong and Bob Hasan began in Central Java while,
   as a mid-ranked military officer, he was involved in series of
   questionable 'profit generating' activities conducted primarily to keep
   the poorly funded military unit functioning. In 1959 he was accused of
   smuggling. However, his military career was saved by Gen. Gatot
   Subroto. Instead of being brought to a martial court, he was
   transferred to the army Staff College in Bandung, West Java. In 1962 he
   was promoted to the rank of major general and took command of the
   Diponegoro Division. During the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation,
   Suharto was a commander of Kostrad (Strategic Reserve), a sizeable army
   combat force, which most importantly had significant presence in the
   Jakarta area. By 1965, the armed forces split into two factions, one
   left wing and one right wing, with Suharto in the right-wing camp.

Indonesian Civil War

   As Major General, Suharto (at right, foreground) attends funeral for
   assassinated generals 5 October 1965. (Photo by the Department of
   Information, Indonesia)
   Enlarge
   As Major General, Suharto (at right, foreground) attends funeral for
   assassinated generals 5 October 1965. (Photo by the Department of
   Information, Indonesia)

   On the morning of October 1, 1965, a group of Sukarno's closest guards
   kidnapped and murdered six of the right-wing anti-Communist generals.
   Sukarno's guards claimed that they were trying to stop a CIA-backed
   military coup which was planned to remove Sukarno from power on "Army
   Day", October 5. Suharto, at the time a Major General, joined surviving
   right-wing General Abdul Haris Nasution (once a Sukarno ally) in
   pointing the blame for the assassinations toward Sukarno loyalists and
   the Communist Party of Indonesia - a conspiracy they collectively
   dubbed the "30 September Movement" ( Indonesian: Gerakan 30 September).
   The group's name was more commonly abbreviated G30S, and propaganda
   would refer to the group by the epithet Gestapu (for its supposed
   similarity to the Nazi secret police the Gestapo). Later, in 2004,
   Indonesian television station MetroTV published research that concluded
   that Suharto had organized the assassinations of the generals and
   blamed it on Sukarno in order to gain power.

Crisis and opportunity

   Chaos and confusion surrounded the assassinations, but provided an
   opportunity for Suharto to rise within the army's ranks. At the time of
   the assassinations of the generals, Maj. Gen. Suharto and his Kostrad
   units were closest to the capital Jakarta; thus he became the field
   general in charge of prosecution of the alleged G30S forces. He gained
   further military powers through the intervention of the surviving
   right-wing Defense Minister and overall military Chief-of-Staff Gen.
   Abdul Haris Nasution, who forced President Sukarno to remove Maj. Gen.
   Pranoto Reksosamudra (seen as a leftist and Sukarno-loyalist) from the
   position of Army Chief-of-Staff, and to replace him with Maj. Gen.
   Suharto.

   On 18 October, a declaration was read over the army-controlled radio
   stations, banning the Communist Party of Indonesia. The army, acting on
   orders by Suharto and supervised by Nasution, began a campaign of
   agitation and incitement to violence among Indonesian civilians aimed
   not only at Communists but the ethnic-Chinese community and toward
   President Sukarno himself. The resultant destabilization of the country
   left the Army the only force left to maintain order.

Power struggle

   In the following months, as alleged Communists and Sukarno loyalists
   were killed and captured from the cities and villages, and liquidated
   from government, the troika of Pres. Sukarno, Nasution, and Suharto
   jockeyed for power. Contemporary reports state that Sukarno was
   politically weak and desperate to keep power in the hands of his
   presidency by starting a factional struggle between Gen. Nasution and
   Suharto, while the two were absorbed in personal ambitions.

   On 1 February 1966, Pres. Sukarno promoted Suharto to the rank of
   Lieutenant General. The same month, Gen. Nasution had been forced out
   of his position of Defense Minister. The power contest had been boiled
   down to Suharto and Sukarno; with Sukarno in ill-health and politically
   isolated due to the removal of the PKI from the scene, Suharto had
   virtually assured himself the presidency.

Consequences

   Both supporters and critics of Suharto acknowledge that the period of
   civil war was marked by human rights abuses, with estimated civilian
   casualties ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions. Supporters
   of Suharto claim that these were justified due to the imminent threat
   of a PKI-led coup, citing the 1948 Madiun Affair, and that the
   Communist Party intended its peasant and workers' organizations to
   eventually become a fighting force.

   Critics of Suharto claim that the PKI in 1965 had an inclination toward
   Eurocommunism and had come to prefer parliamentary electoral politics
   to armed insurrection; the party placed third in the 1955 presidential
   election behind Sukarno's own Partai Nasional Indonesia (PNI) and the
   Islamist party Masyumi. These critics allege that Suharto purposefully
   exaggerated PKI involvement in the assassinations of the generals, in
   order to justify the liquidation of this power bloc as well as to
   justify his repressive measures afterwards.

   However brutal, Suharto's wresting of power away from the firebrand
   Sukarno brought a shift in policy that allowed for USAID and other
   relief agencies to resume operations within the country. Suharto would
   open Indonesia's economy by divesting state owned companies, and
   Western nations in particular were encouraged to invest and take
   control of many of the mining and construction interests in Indonesia.
   The result was the alleviation of famine conditions due to shortfalls
   in rice supply and Sukarno's reluctance to take Western aid, and
   stabilisation of the economy.

"New Order" Government

   Suharto is appointed president of Indonesia at ceremony, March 1968.
   (Photo by the Department of Information, Indonesia)
   Enlarge
   Suharto is appointed president of Indonesia at ceremony, March 1968.
   (Photo by the Department of Information, Indonesia)

   On March 11, 1966 the ailing Sukarno wrote a letter (the Surat Perintah
   Sebelas Maret or " Supersemar") in which he declared a state of
   emergency and transferred most of his power to Suharto. Through this,
   Suharto established what he called the New Order (Orde Baru). He
   permanently banned the Communist Party of Indonesia and its alleged
   front groups, purging the parliament and cabinet of Sukarno loyalists,
   eliminating labor unions and instituting press censorship.

   Internationally, Suharto put Indonesia on a course toward improved
   relations with Western nations, while ending its friendly relations
   with the People's Republic of China. He dispatched his foreign
   minister, Adam Malik to mend strained relations with the United States,
   United Nations, and Malaysia and end the Confrontation. Indonesia also
   became a founding member of ASEAN.

Institutionalisation of the New Order

   On March 12, 1967 Sukarno was stripped of his remaining power by
   Indonesia's provisional Parliament, led by Nasution. Suharto was named
   Acting President. On March 21, 1968 he was formally elected for the
   first of his five-year terms as President.

   To maintain order, Suharto greatly expanded the funding and powers of
   the Indonesian state apparatus. He established two intelligence
   agencies—the Operational Command for the Restoration of Security and
   Order (KOPKAMTIB) and the State Intelligence Coordination Agency
   (BAKIN)—to deal with threats to the regime. Suharto also established
   the Bureau of Logistics (BULOG) to distribute rice and other staple
   commodities granted by USAID. These new government bodies were put
   under the military regional command structure, that under Suharto was
   given a "dual function" as both a defense force and as civilian
   administrators.

   On economic matters, President Suharto relied on a group of
   American-educated economists, nicknamed the " Berkeley Mafia," to set
   policy. Soon after coming to power, he passed a number of reforms meant
   to establish Indonesia as a centre of foreign investment. These
   included the privatization of its natural resources to promote their
   exploitation by industrialized nations, labour laws favorable to
   multinational corporations, and soliciting funds for development from
   institutions including the World Bank, Western banks, and friendly
   governments.

   As virtually unchecked forces in Indonesian society under the New
   Order, however, members of the military and Golkar Party were heavily
   involved as intermediaries between businesses (foreign and domestic)
   and the Indonesian government. This led to bribery, racketeering, and
   embezzlement. Funds from these practices often flowed to foundations
   (yayasan) controlled by the Suharto family. .

Unitary state and regional unrest

   As Indonesian President, Suharto attends 1970 meeting of the
   Non-Aligned Movement in Lusaka, Zambia. (Photo by the State
   Secretariat, Indonesia)
   Enlarge
   As Indonesian President, Suharto attends 1970 meeting of the
   Non-Aligned Movement in Lusaka, Zambia. (Photo by the State
   Secretariat, Indonesia)

   From his assumption of office until his resignation, Suharto continued
   Sukarno's policy of asserting Indonesian sovereignty. He acted
   zealously to stake and enforce territorial claims over much of the
   region, through both diplomacy and military action.

   In 1969, Suharto moved to end the longtime controversy over the last
   Dutch territory in the East Indies, western New Guinea. Working with
   the United States and United Nations, an agreement was made to hold a
   referendum on self-determination, in which participants could choose to
   remain part of the Netherlands, to integrate with the Republic of
   Indonesia, or to become independent. Though originally phrased to be a
   nationwide vote of all adult Papuans, the " Act of Free Choice" was
   held July–August 1969 allowed only 1022 "chiefs" to vote. The unanimous
   vote was for integration with the Republic of Indonesia, leading to
   doubts of the validity of the vote.

   In 1975, after Portugal withdrew from its colony of East Timor and the
   Fretilin movement momentarily took power, Suharto ordered troops to
   invade the country. Later the puppet government installed by Indonesia
   requested the area be annexed to the country. It was estimated that
   200,000 people, roughly a third of the local population, were killed by
   the Indonesian forces or affiliated proxy forces. On July 15, 1976 East
   Timor became the province of Timor Timur until it was transferred to
   the United Nations in 1999.

   In 1976, the regime was challenged in the province of Aceh by the
   formation of the Free Aceh Movement, or GAM, who demanded independence
   from the unitary state. Suharto quickly authorized troops to put down
   the rebellion, forcing several of its leaders into exile in Sweden.
   Prolonged fighting between GAM and the Indonesian military and police
   led Suharto to declare martial law in the province, by naming Aceh a
   "military operational area" (DOM) in 1990.

   Underpinning Suharto's territorial ambitions was the rapid development
   of Indonesia's traditional urban centers. The rapid pace of this
   development had vastly increased their population density. In response,
   Suharto pursued the policy of transmigration to promote movement from
   crowded cities to rural regions of the archipelago where natural
   resources had not yet been exploited.

Politics and dissent

   Suharto with U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen, 14 January 1998.
   (Photo by the United States Department of Defense)
   Enlarge
   Suharto with U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen, 14 January 1998.
   (Photo by the United States Department of Defense)

   In 1970, corruption prompted student protests and an investigation by a
   government commission. Suharto responded by banning student protests,
   forcing the activists underground. Only token prosecution of the cases
   recommended by the commission was pursued. The pattern of co-opting a
   few of his more powerful opponents while criminalising the rest became
   a hallmark of Suharto's rule.

   In order to maintain a veneer of democracy, Suharto made a number of
   electoral reforms. According to his electoral rules, however, only
   three parties were allowed to participate in the election: his own
   Golkar party; the Islamist United Development Party (PPP); and the
   Democratic Party of Indonesia (PDI). All the previously existing
   political parties were forced to be part of either the PPP and PDI,
   with public servants under pressure to join Golkar. In a political
   compromise with the powerful military, he banned its members from
   voting in elections, but set aside 100 seats in the electoral college
   for their representatives. As a result, he was unopposed for reelection
   as president in 1973, 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, and 1998.

   On May 5, 1980 a group Petition of Fifty (Petisi 50) demanded greater
   political freedoms. It was composed of former military men,
   politicians, academics and students. The Indonesian media suppressed
   the news and the government placed restrictions on the signatories.
   After the group's 1984 accusation that Suharto was creating a one-party
   state, some of its leaders were jailed.

   In the same decade, it is believed by many scholars that the Indonesian
   military split between a nationalist "red and white faction" and an
   Islamist "green faction." As the 1980s closed, Suharto is said to have
   been forced to shift his alliances from the former to the latter,
   leading to the rise of Jusuf Habibie in the 1990s.

   After the 1990s brought end of the Cold War, Western concern over
   communism waned, and Suharto's human rights record came under greater
   international scrutiny. In 1991, the murder of East Timorese civilians
   in a Dili cemetery, also known as the "Santa Cruz Massacre", caused
   American attention to focus on its military relations with the Suharto
   regime and the question of Indonesia's occupation of East Timor. In
   1992, this attention resulted in the Congress of the United States
   passing limitations on IMET assistance to the Indonesian military, over
   the objections of President George H.W. Bush. In 1993, under President
   Bill Clinton, the U.S. delegation to the UN Human Rights Commission
   helped pass a resolution expressing deep concern over Indonesian human
   rights violations in East Timor. The Indonesian invasion and occupation
   of East Timor has been called the worst instance of genocide (relative
   to population) since the Holocaust

Reformation protests and Suharto's resignation

   In 1996 Suharto was challenged by a split over the leadership of the
   Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), a legal party that propped up the
   regime. Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of Sukarno, had become
   PDI's chairwoman and was increasingly critical of Suharto's regime. In
   response, Suharto backed a co-opted faction led by Deputy Speaker of
   Parliament Suryadi. The Suryadi faction announced a party congress to
   sack Megawati would be held in Medan June 20 - 22.

   In response, Megawati proclaimed that if sacked, her supporters would
   hold demonstrations in protest. The Suryadi faction went through with
   its sacking of Megawati, and the demonstrations manifested themselves
   throughout Indonesia. This led to several confrontations on the streets
   between protesters and security forces. A deal was eventually made with
   the military to allow Megawati's supporters to take over PDI
   headquarters in Jakarta, in exchange for a pledge of no further
   demonstrations. During this time, Megawati supporters organized
   "democracy forums" at the site, with several activists making speeches
   denouncing Suharto and his regime.

   After one month of this, police, soldiers, and persons claiming to be
   Suryadi supporters stormed the headquarters, killing Megawati
   supporters and arresting two-hundred. Those arrested were tried under
   the Anti-Subversion and Hate-spreading laws. The day would become known
   as "Black Saturday" and mark the beginning of a renewed crackdown by
   the New Order government against supporters of democracy, now called
   the "Reformasi" or Reformation.

   In 1997 Asian financial crisis had dire consequences for the Indonesian
   economy and society, and Suharto's regime. The Indonesian currency, the
   rupiah, took a sharp dive in value. Suharto came under scrutiny from
   international lending institutions, chiefly the World Bank, IMF and the
   United States, over longtime embezzlement of funds and some
   protectionist policies. In December, Suharto's government signed a
   letter of intent to the IMF, pledging to enact austerity measures,
   including cuts to public services and removal of subsidies, in return
   for receiving the aid of the IMF and other donors.

   Beginning in early 1998, the austerity measures approved by Suharto had
   started to erode domestic confidence in the regime. Prices for
   commodities such as kerosene and rice, and fees for public services
   including education rose dramatically. The effects were exacerbated by
   widespread corruption.

   Suharto stood for reelection for the seventh time in March 1998,
   justifying it on the grounds of the necessity of his leadership during
   the crisis. As in past years, he was unopposed for reelection. This
   sparked protests and riots throughout the country, now termed the
   Indonesian Revolution of 1998. Dissension within the ranks of his own
   Golkar party and military finally weakened Suharto, and on May 21 he
   stood down from power. He was replaced by his deputy Jusuf Habibie.

After the fall

   Since his resignation, Suharto has retired to a family compound in
   Central Jakarta, making few public appearances. Efforts to prosecute
   Suharto have mostly centered around alleged mismanagement of funds, and
   their force has been blunted due to health concerns.

Investigations of wealth

   In May 1999, a Time Asia estimated Suharto's family fortune at US$15
   billion in cash, shares, corporate assets, real estate, jewelery and
   fine art. Of this, US$9 billion is reported to have been deposited in
   an Austrian bank. The family is said to control about 36,000 km² of
   real estate in Indonesia, including 100,000 m² of prime office space in
   Jakarta and nearly 40 percent of the land in East Timor. Over US$73
   billion is said to have passed through the family's hands during
   Suharto's 32-year rule.

   On May 29, 2000, Suharto was placed under house arrest when Indonesian
   authorities began to investigate the corruption during his regime. In
   July, it was announced that he was to be accused of embezzling US$571
   million of government donations to one of a number of foundations under
   his control and then using the money to finance family investments. But
   in September court-appointed doctors announced that he could not stand
   trial because of his declining health. State prosecutors tried again in
   2002 but then doctors cited an unspecified brain disease.

   According to Transparency International, Suharto embezzled more money
   than any other world leader in history.

Health and attempts at prosecution

   Since resigning from the presidency, Suharto has been hospitalized
   repeatedly for stroke, heart, and intestinal problems. These conditions
   have affected the many attempts to prosecute Suharto on charges of
   corruption and human rights violations, as his lawyers have repeatedly
   and successfully claimed that the conditions render him unfit for
   trial. Various opponents and aggrieved parties have charged that
   Suharto is malingering, and complained of the hypocrisy of the mercy
   shown toward him.

As of 2005-06

   On 6 May 2005, Suharto was taken to Pertamina Hospital in Jakarta with
   intestinal bleeding, believed to be from diverticulosis. The political
   elite of Indonesia, including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and
   Vice President Jusuf Kalla, visited his bedside. He was released and
   returned home, May 12, 2005.

   On 26 May 2005, the Jakarta Post reported that amid an effort by the
   government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to crack down on
   corruption, Indonesian Attorney General Abdurrahman Saleh appeared
   before a Parliamentary commission to discuss efforts to prosecute New
   Order figures, including Suharto. Attorney General Abdurrahman remarked
   that he hoped Suharto could recover so that the government could begin
   inquiries into New Order human rights violations and corruption for
   purposes of compensation and recovery of state funds, but expressed
   skepticism that this would be possible. As a result, the Supreme Court
   of Indonesia has issued a decree making the office of the Attorney
   General responsible for supervising Suharto's medical care.

   On 24 April 2006, Attorney General Abdurrahman announced that a team of
   twenty doctors would be asked to evaluate Suharto's health and fitness
   for trial. One physician, Brigadier General Dr Marjo Subiandono, stated
   his doubts about by noting that "[Suharto] has two permanent cerebral
   defects." In a later Financial Times report, Attorney General
   Abdurrahman discussed the re-examination, and called it part of a "last
   opportunity" to prosecute Suharto criminally. Attorney General
   Abdurrahman left open the possibility of filing suit against the
   Suharto estate."

   On 4 May 2006, Suharto was again admitted to Pertamina Hospital for
   intestinal bleeding. His doctors stated further that Suharto was
   suffering from partial organ failure and in unstable condition.

Related legal cases

   Unable to prosecute Suharto, the state has instead pursued legal
   actions against his former subordinates and members of his family.
   Suharto's son Hutomo Mandala Putra, more widely known as Tommy Suharto,
   was initially sentenced to fifteen years in jail for arranging the
   murder of a judge who sentenced him to eighteen months for his role in
   a land scam in September 2000. He became the first member of the
   Suharto family to be found guilty and jailed for a criminal offence.
   Tommy Suharto maintained his innocence, and won a reduction of his
   sentence to ten years in June 2005. On October 30, 2006 he was freed on
   "conditional release". BBC

   In 2003, Suharto's half-brother Probosutedjo was tried and convicted
   for corrupt practices that lost a total of $10 million from the
   Indonesian state. He was sentenced to four years in jail. He later won
   a reduction of his sentence to two years, initiating a probe by the
   Indonesian Corruption Eradication Commission into the alleged scandal
   of the "judicial mafia" which uncovered offers of $600,000 to various
   judges. Probosutedjo confessed to the scheme in October 2005, leading
   to the arrest of his lawyers. He later had his full four year term
   reinstated. After a brief standoff at a hospital, in which he was
   reportedly protected by a group of police officers, he was arrested on
   30 November 2005.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haji_Mohammad_Suharto"
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