Suharto

Suharto ruled unopposed well into the 1990s after becoming head of the Indonesian military government. He served as a brutal dictator who purged Indonesia of his political opponents and communists by slaughtering and dividing his nation. Not only did Suharto commit crimes against humanity, but he committed many frauds economically. Suharto’s long reign proved to be at least as harmful, if not worse than Sukarno’s in the end. Indonesia was left distraught after his rule.

Suharto
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Suharto rose to power by climbing the military ladder and slowly highering in rank. Before World War II, Suharto was an ordinary Indonesian man working for a small bank, but when the Dutch called for a local defense team Suharto joined and eventually became sergeant. When the Dutch lost Indonesia to the Japanese, Suharto joined the local Japanese volunteer force and eventually rose to company commander. When the Japanese lost Indonesia, the Dutch tried to once again rule, but the local volunteer forces resisted and independence was declared. From this point on, Suharto served in the militarily and rose in rank. By 1963, he was the major general, and for a short period of time Suharto served as the commander in chief of the army’s strategic command. Though Suharto was militaristically involved, he showed no interest in politics other than his extreme anti-communist beliefs. Suharto gained the greatest recognition for countering a communist rebellion on September 30, 1965 that would have killed the top ranking military officials. When it was discovered that the current president Achmed Sukarno was involved in the coup, Suharto took control of the government and purged Indonesia of communists and opponents. About half a million people were brutally slaughtered in this purge. This led Suharto to his five-year term election in 1968 by the Consultative Congress.

Once in power, Suharto began his “New Order” Regime. Suharto’s goal was to improve the Indonesian economy. This was done with American-educated economists and industrialists which he paid for with more than 200 million dollars in foreign aid from investors. Keynesian economic policies were enforced in Indonesia to prevent inflation. The Indonesian economy had greatly improved by the mid-1970s and Suharto was reelected until 1998 for five year presidency terms. But, in 1997 the currency crisis in Southeast Asia spread to Indonesia and affected the value of their currency the rupiah, causing the economy to collapse once again. Riots broke out, and the army began to disobey Suharto, which left him no option but to resign in 1998 as president of Indonesia.

Polical Comic of Suharto's Legacy in Indonesia
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As time passed, Suharto found himself in many legal charges. Within two years corruption charges were filed, but with Suharto’s declining health, trial was postponed. Because of discontent and violent riots at the capital, Suharto was put under house arrest. Until 2006, Suharto was kept under house arrest for these charges, which were lifted because of his poor health. Once again though, in July of 2007, a civil suit was filed for 1.1 billion rupiahs in embezzlement damages. To add to the legal troubles Suharto was in, an investigation of human rights abuses was announced in December because of the 500,000 people who were killed during the purge. On January 27, 2008, Suharto died at 86 years in a coma after multiple organ failures.