Gamal Nkrumah analyses the controversial legacy of Suharto Hajj Mohamed Suharto was a hard man to beat. Not only was he renowned for his autocratic ways and ruthless suppression of opposition, but of steering Indonesia away from Communism and onto the straight and narrow path of Islam and capitalist development. This most controversial of figures, undoubtedly one of the most historically influential in all Asia, was buried on Monday in the venerated tradition of a Javanese potentate, his body interred in the family mausoleum at Giribangun, the ancient burial grounds of Solo's Mangkunegaran kings, amid much pomp and ceremony. Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhonyono paid tribute to the man who for 32 years was the sprawling southeast Asian archipelago's invincible strongman. Suharto was accorded a state funeral with full military honours, even though when he stepped down from office in 1998, he was a man in disgrace and is widely loathed. Still, like his Chilean fellow dictator, he eluded the humiliation of judgment on the grounds of ill health. But who was this man, and what was the true import of his checkered legacy? Suharto ousted his iconic mentor Sukarno in a ruthless palace coup. A bloody chapter in Indonesia's history ensued. The Communist Party of Indonesia was mercilessly crushed. Suharto unleashed his military and security apparatus on leftists and hapless peasants suspected of sympathising with the communist cause. He was the first leader, perhaps, to be used by the Americans to liquidate the leftists by means of setting the Islamists against them. Suharto encouraged the more militant strands of political Islam, abetted by the US, as it later did in Afghanistan. They provided an alternative to the Communists in the most populous Muslim country in the world. But at what long- term cost? As the pre-eminent personality in the struggle against Communism in southeast Asia, Suharto earned a place for himself in history. The highly-esteemed Singaporean statesman Lee Kwan Yew, a contemporary of Suharto, and the founder of modern Singapore, had nothing but praise for Suharto when he paid a visit to his deathbed last week. "The younger generation, both in Indonesia and in the world, do not remember where Indonesia started," mused Singapore's founding father. "He deserves recognition for what he did. Yes, there was corruption," he conceded. "Yes, he gave favours to his family and his friends. But, there was real growth and real progress," Lee Kwan Yew stressed. This conventional wisdom about Suharto as the saviour of a country on the verge of chaos is in fact far from the truth. Sukarno was the Father of the Nation, the adored leader of Indonesia in its fight for independence from the Dutch. He forged the new secular Indonesia from its beginnings in 1945 and is still revered as such. His daughter, Megawat Sukarnoputri served as president from 2001-04, a wistful vindication of his legacy. At the pinnacle of his political career, Suharto looked unbeatable. The Cold War played to his strength. The United States was instrumental in propping up the Suharto regime from start to finish. At the funeral, US Ambassador to Indonesia Cameron Hume called Suharto a "historic figure who left a lasting imprint on Indonesia and the region." A ruthless tyrant, he indeed crushed millions underfoot. Born into a poor peasant family in Java, he enlisted in the Dutch colonial army after a stint as a bank clerk. He was a man on the make, and he soon signed up with the pro-Japanese anti- Dutch army during WW II. The Dutch were routed and the Japanese instilled a nationalist mindset among Indonesians. For the first time in four centuries of Dutch rule, Indonesians felt that independence from the Netherlands was within their grasp. Suharto quickly rose through the ranks to become a major- general in the Indonesian army after independence from the Netherlands in 1945. He was a go-getter and a social climber, too. In spite of his humble beginnings, he married a royal Solo princess., Siti Haryinah. In politics, too, he was notoriously ambitious. He wasted no time in turning against Sukarno, the charismatic leader of Indonesia's independence struggle. Sukarno was suspected of sympathising with the Communist cause. An alleged Communist coup attempt was cruelly quelled in 1965, though Suharto was not able to disposed of the adored Sukarno for two more years. Bloodbaths ensued. Ethnic cleansing of the Chinese community on the pretext that they sympathised with the Communists ushered in a horrific chapter in the country's history. The ethnic Chinese of Indonesia were turned into scapegoats and victimised. Christians, too, came under fire. Sectarian strife was rife and peoples of the outlying islands tried desperately to secede. It was Suharto's brutish authoritarianism that forcibly held the country together. For his success in defending Indonesian national unity and territorial integrity, many of his compatriots are grateful to this day. But, they are also aware that stability came at a terrible price -- at least one million Indonesians perished as a direct result of the Suharto's purges and pogroms, and millions more languished in jails. in 1966 alone, half a million Communists and their sympathisers were murdered. The CIA supported the slaughter, providing names of operatives, though an official CIA report later admitted the massacre was "one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century." Sukarno's widow Ratna Sari Dewi Sukarno, who lives in Japan, called Suharto "Indonesia's Pol Pot". Suharto earned the accolade the Puppet Master, the chief puppeteer in traditional Javanese puppet plays. Bahasa Indonesia was pronounced the official language of the vast multi-cultural archipelago. Local cultural specificities were downplayed and in some cases viciously suppressed. Oil-rich Aceh in the far west of the country and Papua in the far east took up arms aimed at secession. Javanese were cajoled into leaving their overpopulated and densely-crowded island to seek greener pastures in the outlying and less densely populated islands. Conflict between indigenous peoples and the Javanese immigrants inevitably occurred. To his credit, then, it can be argued that he established and held together Indonesia as a multi-ethnic, multi- religious and multi-linguistic archipelago of some 17,000 islands. The tremendous mineral wealth, agricultural potential, forestry and above all oil and natural gas fuelled rapid economic growth, though the gap between rich and poor was exacerbated. Suharto, who had already been investigated in the 1950s on corruption charges, siphoned off much of the country's wealth for himself and his cronies. Corruption was rampant and it is estimated that Suharto and his family pocketed no less than $35 billion. His children are still among the wealthiest Indonesians and control many companies. Be that as it may, in May 2006, Indonesia's attorney general dropped all criminal proceedings against Suharto. "Father was only human, who had weaknesses and strengths and was not exempted from mistakes," pleaded Suharto's eldest daughter Siti Hadjianti Rukmana, better known as Tutut. "If he has committed mistakes, may Allah forgive him," Tutut appealed to the Indonesian people. "It is impossible to forget the past, but East Timor should forgive him," East Timor's President Jose Ramos- Horta, who lost four siblings during the independence struggle from Indonesia, said when Suharto of his deathbed. The good times, which were largely based on the sharp rise in oil prices in the 1970s, did not last. The Asian financial crisis put an abrupt end to the boom. Suharto desperately tried to shore up his popularity by invading East Timor, a former Portuguese colony which he annexed in 1974. Nonetheless, dissent began to resurface, and with demonstrations and riots mounting, he was finally forced to cede power, allowing Indonesia to move into a new era of pluralist democracy. The sad truth is that many a tree was felled in the cause of advancing economic prosperity and development in Indonesia, with the proceeds going mostly to a small elite. By escaping trial and instead succumbing to the Grim Reaper, Suharto managed to escape his well-deserved fate as one of those trees, going down in history as the merciless feller.
