Andre Vltchek: Indonesia After Suharto – The Last King of Java Forgiven (By Elites)
[Andre Vltchek– novelist, journalist, playwright. Co-founder of Mainstay Press (www.mainstaypress.org), publishing house for political fiction. Editorial director of Asiana Press Agency (www.asiana-press-agency.com). Author of several novels and plays, he also directed a 90 minute documentary on the Suharto dictatorship “Terlena – Breaking of a Nation”. Andre lives and works in Asia and South Pacific and can be contacted at: andre-wcn@usa.net ]
... Suharto's coffin was lowered into his grave, next to that of his wife, who died in 1996, and one salvo was fired at the funeral ceremony, led by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
‘I on behalf of the nation and the Indonesian military, surrender the body and soul of Haji Muhammad Suharto to the soil of the motherland,’ said Yudhoyono.”
With this, Haji General and President of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono forgave Haji General and former President of Indonesia Mohammed Suharto, on behalf of the Indonesian nation. It seems that the former dictator had been forgiven by many – by former leaders of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, by the entire top military brass of Indonesia, by the business elites, by the leaders of the political parties that are all staunchly pro-business (except Papernas, which did not “forgive him”), by the religious clergy (after all, he did kill hundreds of thousands of “atheists”, and NU as well as other religious movements gave him a helping hand during the massacres), by Western governments that supported him from the beginning, and, of course, by his entire outrageously corrupt family. It also seems that he had been forgiven by most of the mass media at home, in most ASEAN countries, in the United States, Europe and Australia.
Like any good king, he left behind no strife that might engender independent thought, no real opposition and no alternative interpretation of his reign. Dirt-poor Indonesians lined up to catch a glimpse of his hearse in Jakarta and in Solo. There were no mass demonstrations and no demands to return the billions stolen from the desperate nation.
Although most Indonesians had heard about the massive corruption involving Suharto and his family, they had also been told that during his reign the economy had done much better than before he grabbed power and after he was forced to step down.
Although some know that massacres occurred in 1965/66, the taboo on public mention of the massacres remains strong. The nation was forced-fed propaganda about a communist coup and about the army that saved the nation. Hatred directed towards leftists, atheists and people of Chinese origin became the main pillar of Suharto’s governance. And there is no general awareness about the genocide in East Timor or the massacres in Papua. Even, especially, the upper middle class and elites that have full access to foreign media continue to downplay reports on the subject of Javanese colonialism.
But let us return to the success story of the Indonesian economy, to “the miracle” that helped this once poor nation to embrace market forces and uplift tens of millions from misery. After all, without Suharto, “Indonesia would not be as wealthy” as it is now, as Professor Michael Hitchcock of London Metropolitan University explained on BBC World.
What is significant is that the great majority of Indonesians do not even realize that they and the nation remain desperately poor. In Indonesia only elites travel abroad and they have little to complain about, with an underpaid and obedient labor-force of nannies, maids, drivers, gardeners and cooks serving them upon their return home.
The Indonesian government and media claim that “only” 17% of citizens live below the poverty line. But their calculation defies even the inadequate international poverty norm. In Indonesia the poor are those whose monthly income is below 17 dollars while the international criterion for extreme poverty is those who live on less than 1 dollar a day, and for poverty it is 2 dollars a day. In 2006 the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) set the poverty line at Rp 152,847 (below 17 dollars) per person per month, which, by official calculation, gives a poverty rate of 17.8 percent equal to 39.1 million of the 220 million population. Unmentioned is the fact that over 49% of Indonesians are surviving on less than 2 dollars a day (according to the World Bank) and are, therefore, poor by international standards. Many local and international experts believe that in fact the great majority of Indonesians are poor or extremely poor....
Read entire article at Japan Focus
... Suharto's coffin was lowered into his grave, next to that of his wife, who died in 1996, and one salvo was fired at the funeral ceremony, led by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
‘I on behalf of the nation and the Indonesian military, surrender the body and soul of Haji Muhammad Suharto to the soil of the motherland,’ said Yudhoyono.”
With this, Haji General and President of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono forgave Haji General and former President of Indonesia Mohammed Suharto, on behalf of the Indonesian nation. It seems that the former dictator had been forgiven by many – by former leaders of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, by the entire top military brass of Indonesia, by the business elites, by the leaders of the political parties that are all staunchly pro-business (except Papernas, which did not “forgive him”), by the religious clergy (after all, he did kill hundreds of thousands of “atheists”, and NU as well as other religious movements gave him a helping hand during the massacres), by Western governments that supported him from the beginning, and, of course, by his entire outrageously corrupt family. It also seems that he had been forgiven by most of the mass media at home, in most ASEAN countries, in the United States, Europe and Australia.
Like any good king, he left behind no strife that might engender independent thought, no real opposition and no alternative interpretation of his reign. Dirt-poor Indonesians lined up to catch a glimpse of his hearse in Jakarta and in Solo. There were no mass demonstrations and no demands to return the billions stolen from the desperate nation.
Although most Indonesians had heard about the massive corruption involving Suharto and his family, they had also been told that during his reign the economy had done much better than before he grabbed power and after he was forced to step down.
Although some know that massacres occurred in 1965/66, the taboo on public mention of the massacres remains strong. The nation was forced-fed propaganda about a communist coup and about the army that saved the nation. Hatred directed towards leftists, atheists and people of Chinese origin became the main pillar of Suharto’s governance. And there is no general awareness about the genocide in East Timor or the massacres in Papua. Even, especially, the upper middle class and elites that have full access to foreign media continue to downplay reports on the subject of Javanese colonialism.
But let us return to the success story of the Indonesian economy, to “the miracle” that helped this once poor nation to embrace market forces and uplift tens of millions from misery. After all, without Suharto, “Indonesia would not be as wealthy” as it is now, as Professor Michael Hitchcock of London Metropolitan University explained on BBC World.
What is significant is that the great majority of Indonesians do not even realize that they and the nation remain desperately poor. In Indonesia only elites travel abroad and they have little to complain about, with an underpaid and obedient labor-force of nannies, maids, drivers, gardeners and cooks serving them upon their return home.
The Indonesian government and media claim that “only” 17% of citizens live below the poverty line. But their calculation defies even the inadequate international poverty norm. In Indonesia the poor are those whose monthly income is below 17 dollars while the international criterion for extreme poverty is those who live on less than 1 dollar a day, and for poverty it is 2 dollars a day. In 2006 the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) set the poverty line at Rp 152,847 (below 17 dollars) per person per month, which, by official calculation, gives a poverty rate of 17.8 percent equal to 39.1 million of the 220 million population. Unmentioned is the fact that over 49% of Indonesians are surviving on less than 2 dollars a day (according to the World Bank) and are, therefore, poor by international standards. Many local and international experts believe that in fact the great majority of Indonesians are poor or extremely poor....