Indonesia’s Former President Suharto Dies
Today, is a historical day for my country Indonesia. Our controversial former President, Mr. Soeharto dead. I think his death will take cases related on him also be buried together without any conclusion and solution.Personally, i think Mr. Soeharto is a controversial man who, in one side should be given merit for many things he has done for Indonesia, and one side, should be condemned to heaviest punishment available as he did a lot of horrible action in his 32 years reign. Below are post, as result of my read, saturated from various news site.
Indonesias former President, Soeharto aka Suharto (86), died this afternoon in Pertamina Hospital Jakarta, Indonesia. He died after been treated for 23 days. His condition worsened dramatically over the weekend and he lost consciousness and stopped breathing on his own, they said.
According to the chief presidential doctor, Mr. Soeharto declared dead at 1:10 p.m because of multi-organ failure.
Soeharto who was born in Kemusuk village, Yogyakarta, on June 8, 1921, ruled the country for 32 years through six consecutive general elections.
Between 1960 and 1965, the national economy grew merely by an average of 2.1 percent annually. The inflation rate reached over 250 percent in 1961-1965 and even jumped to 650 percent in 1966.
The Smiling General
The Smiling General, cute name given by west media, was driven from office in 1998 by widespread rioting, economic paralysis and political chaos.
Despite so many negative tag given to his reign. His rule was not without accomplishment; he led
But these successes were ultimately overshadowed by his pervasive and large-scale corruption; repressive, militarized rule; and a convulsion of mass bloodletting when he seized power in the late 1960s that took at least 500,000 lives. The event widely known as G-30S PKI (30 September Communist Party Movement).
As the leader of one of the world’s most populous countries, Mr. Suharto and his family became notorious for controlling state enterprises and taking kickbacks for government contracts, for siphoning money from state charities and for committing gross violations of human rights.
Yet Mr. Suharto remained virtually untouchable to the end, even as his successors in a new democratic system repudiated his rule.
In his last days, a parade of the country’s power elite visited the hospital to pay their respects. Some of his collegas when he rule also pay a visit, including Mr. Mahatir Muhammad former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew former Prime Minister of Singapore, and Mr. Hasanah Bolkiah the Sultan of Brunei Darusallam.
Like his predecessor, Sukarno, Mr. Suharto worked to forge national unity in a fractious country of 200 million people comprising 300 ethnic groups speaking 250 languages and inhabiting more than 17,000 islands spread over a 3,500-mile archipelago.
In the following years, governing through consensus, traditional mysticism, military repression and authoritarian control, President Suharto restored order to the country and presided over an era of substantial development. Many Indonesians benefited from his programs, but none more so than members of his family, who became billionaires many times over. Last year, he topped a new list of world leaders who had stolen from state coffers. The list, by the United Nations and the World Bank, cited an estimate that he had embezzled $15 billion to $35 billion.
Mr. Suharto was an unlikely character to play such a major role in his country’s destiny. He was a private person, and although he wielded complete power, he spoke in gentle tones, smiled sweetly to friend and foe and presented himself as a man of humble origins, shy, retiring and enigmatic. Short and thick set, he almost invariably dressed in a Western business suit or a safari jacket once he gave up his military uniform, and a black songkok, the flat traditional Indonesian cap.
Rest In Peace Mr. Soeharto.
Saturated from Wiki, Theage.com.au, Nytimes.com
