Republic of Indonesia

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Suharto’s Rise to Power

The situation culminated in a coup attempt on September 30, 1965. Led by Lieutenant Colonel Untung of the palace guard, the usurpers brutally murdered six top generals before being suppressed by General Suharto, head of the army’s strategic command. Suharto took control of the army and increasingly the state; he eased Sukarno out of effective power by March 1966. Although the identity and motives of the coup’s instigators remain controversial, the army alleged the Communist PKI was responsible. In response, army units and many Muslim groups, particularly in the countryside, began massacring Communists and their supporters in late 1965. Between 300,000 to 1 million people were killed in the Communist crackdown. The PKI, essentially erased in the executions, was banned on March 13, 1966. The government also arrested hundreds of thousands of people accused of involvement in the coup attempt. Of those arrested, only about 800 received a trial.

I

1

The New Order

Suharto instituted a “New Order” (Orde Baru) regime, which espoused a largely pro-Western policy. Indonesia ended confrontation with Malaysia and became a major promoter and participant in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which was founded in 1967. Suharto was officially inaugurated president in 1968. Elections were held in 1971, but they were tightly controlled by the government. The government-backed Golkar party secured most of the seats in the House of Representatives, as it would in each of the elections held at five-year intervals thereafter. Similarly, the People’s Consultative Assembly routinely returned Suharto to the presidency, unopposed, at five-year intervals.

In 1975 the state-owned oil enterprise, Pertamina, was unable to meet debt repayments amounting to $10.5 billion, and the crisis threatened Indonesia’s financial structure. Only by canceling projects, renegotiating loans, and receiving help from the United States and other Western governments did Indonesia salvage the situation. The rise in world oil prices helped Indonesia’s economic recovery. When oil prices stagnated in the early 1980s, Suharto shifted economic policy away from a reliance on oil exports. As part of the changes, he introduced greater openness (keterbukaan), promoting foreign investment in Indonesia and greater integration of Indonesia into the world economy. He also introduced reforms across a wide range of sectors to cut production costs and improve the competitiveness of Indonesia’s commodity exports. Although this policy brought about solid economic growth, the reforms did not reverse the nation’s growing economic and social inequalities, particularly among the rural Javanese. A large slice of Indonesia’s wealth came to be concentrated in the hands of the president’s family and their associates. The economic inequalities were exacerbated by the growth of the population, despite a relatively successful family-planning program in Java.

J

Post-“New Order” Indonesia

Opposition to Suharto’s rule grew steadily in the late 1980s and early 1990s, although many Indonesians were afraid to express their views openly. Suharto’s most vocal opponents were Islamic radicals and university students alienated by the government’s corruption and human rights violations. In early 1978 widespread student demonstrations prompted the government to restrict activity on college campuses and freedom of the press. In the early 1990s many dissidents gave their support to Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of former president Sukarno. When she was deposed as chair of the Indonesian Democratic Party by political rivals in mid-1996, protesters rioted in Jakarta. Although Megawati did not have the support of a large part of the Indonesian population, she was the first figure in many years to pose a challenge to the incumbent president.

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Ultimately, it was the economy that posed the greatest threat to Suharto’s rule. In mid-1997 an economic crisis developed when the value of Indonesia’s currency plummeted. The economic crisis was particularly acute for Indonesia’s urban middle class and the poor, as the cost of basic goods and services skyrocketed. In early 1998 riots broke out in several Indonesian cities, and in March, after Suharto was reelected unopposed for a seventh term, students staged protests on university campuses across the country. In May peaceful protests as well as violent riots escalated, and government troops killed hundreds in an attempt to contain the chaos. The growing unrest prompted Suharto to resign on May 21, and his handpicked vice president, Baharuddin Jusuf (“B. J.”) Habibie, assumed the presidency.

In his brief term in office, President Habibie introduced processes of reform (reformasi) and tentatively set about dismantling some of the most repressive measures put in place by Suharto. Provinces were given greater control over their finances. Some of the economic privileges given to the former president’s family were revoked, but Habibie avoided any direct confrontation with Suharto, his mentor since his youth. Habibie’s popular support, which was never very strong, eroded rapidly during his term as president as a result of his failure to deal rigorously with Suharto’s legacy, as well as his involvement in a bank fund misappropriation scandal.

Indonesia held elections for the 500-seat House of Representatives in June 1999. The large number of small parties, many of which disputed the vote-counting process, delayed the declaration of results. Megawati’s new Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) received the largest number of votes (33.7 percent), but it did not gain a majority, winning only 153 seats. Golkar, which had dominated previous elections under Suharto, followed with 22.4 percent, followed by the National Awakening Party (12.6 percent), the PPP (10.7 percent), and the National Mandate Party (7.1 percent). When the People’s Consultative Assembly convened in October to choose the next president, it unexpectedly elected Abdurrahman Wahid of the National Awakening Party. For vice president it elected Megawati Sukarnoputri. A Muslim cleric, Wahid enjoyed a large and devoted following as head the Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia’s largest Islamic organization with about 40 million members. Although neither leader had any previous experience in government, the pairing satisfied the widespread need felt in Indonesia for political change. The new administration faced many problems, including a need to reform governance and administration, remove the Suharto legacy of inefficiency and corruption, and address the continuing economic problems of the country.

In mid-2000, however, Wahid became implicated in two multimillion-dollar corruption scandals. Although an investigative inquiry did not prove Wahid was directly or indirectly involved in the high-level graft, the scandals intensified criticisms of the president’s inattention to the country’s severe social and economic problems. In February 2001 and again in April, the House of Representatives delivered censures against Wahid alleging corruption and incompetence. Wahid rejected the allegations as baseless and ignored calls for his resignation. The legislature then voted to begin impeachment proceedings against Wahid in August. The political crisis came to a head in late July, when Wahid issued an emergency decree to suspend the legislature in an attempt to hold onto power. Police and military officials refused to obey his decree, however, and on July 23 the People’s Consultative Assembly convened in an emergency session and voted to remove Wahid from office. Vice President Megawati was chosen to replace him as president.

In October 2002 a bomb attack in a nightclub district in Bali killed nearly 200 people, mostly tourists. Another bomb exploded near the United States consulate in Sanur, Bali, without causing any injury. The bombings were the latest in a string of church bombings, planned attacks against U.S. embassies, and assassination attempts against President Megawati that were attributed to Jemaah Islamiyah, a militant fundamentalist Islamic movement. The Indonesia-based group was known to have links to the al-Qaeda international terrorist network founded by Osama bin Laden. The Indonesian government responded to the Bali bombings by granting the police wide powers to pursue alleged terrorists.

Constitutional amendments that went into effect in 2004 provided for the creation of a new chamber in Indonesia’s legislature and for the country’s first direct presidential elections. Legislative elections to both chambers in the legislature were held in April. Golkar won 21.6 percent of the vote, giving it more seats than any other party but not an outright majority. Megawati’s PDI-P won 18.5 percent, making it the second largest party.

The top five political parties fielded candidates in Indonesia’s first direct presidential election, held in July 2004. The candidate of the newly formed Democratic Party, retired army general and former security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, came in first place but failed to win a majority of the vote. A runoff election was scheduled for September between Yudhoyono and Megawati, who came in second place. Megawati narrowly beat Golkar’s candidate, General Wiranto. Golkar subsequently endorsed Megawati as part of an agreement to form a coalition government with the PDI-P if Megawati won the runoff election. However, Yudhoyono won the election with 61 percent of the vote. He promised to take immediate steps to stimulate Indonesia’s sluggish economy and to lead a new drive against corruption.

K

Tsunami Disaster of 2004

On December 26, 2004, the world’s most powerful earthquake in 40 years struck deep under the Indian Ocean. The magnitude 9.0 earthquake was centered off the northwestern coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. It triggered a tsunami (massive waves), which spread across the Indian Ocean and crashed into the coasts of 14 countries from Southeast Asia to northeastern Africa. Giant, killer waves hit northern Sumatra just 15 minutes after the quake. The island was the hardest-hit location due to its proximity to the quake’s epicenter, located about 150 km (about 90 mi) from the coastal town of Meulaboh. Most of the island’s damage was concentrated in the northern province of Aceh, and the provincial capital of Banda Aceh was almost completely leveled. Due to the absence of a tsunami early warning system in the Indian Ocean, coastal communities in the region were not forewarned of the impending disaster.

The tsunami was the deadliest in recorded history. The International Committee of the Red Cross reported a death toll of more than 250,000 people as a result of the tsunami and the earthquake. Indonesia suffered the largest loss of life of the stricken countries, accounting for about two-thirds of the total deaths. High death tolls were also reported in Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand.

The tsunami demolished many coastal communities throughout the Indian Ocean region, wiping out homes, roads, and power and phone lines. Millions of survivors were left in desperate need of food, water, shelter, and medical care. A number of countries and international humanitarian organizations coordinated efforts to respond with one of the largest relief efforts in modern history. In Sumatra the difficulty in reaching isolated coastal areas impeded international rescue and relief efforts. The international response to the disaster included pledges from governments around the world of more than $3 billion for humanitarian relief and long-term reconstruction in the affected countries. In early January the Indonesian capital of Jakarta hosted a summit of donors, sponsored by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, to discuss the disbursement of aid and other issues, such as the creation of an advance warning system for tsunamis in the Indian Ocean region.

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Conflict in the Regions

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1

East Timor

Meanwhile, many of the country’s regions were embroiled in ethnic, religious, and political upheaval. The first major challenge during Wahid’s truncated tenure was a popular movement for secession in East Timor, located in the southeastern part of the Indonesian archipelago. In 1975, when Portugal withdrew from its colony of East Timor, the Frente Revolucionária do Timor Leste Independente (Fretilin), a leftist group that had sought independence, promptly declared independence. Indonesia responded by invading East Timor shortly thereafter. Portugal and the UN condemned Indonesia’s invasion, but Indonesia later annexed the area as a province.

Many Timorese died during the annexation and during a famine that resulted from a forced resettlement program in the late 1970s. However, many Timorese continued to seek self-determination for the region, and armed guerrilla groups operated from bases in the highlands of Timor. Xanana Gusmão led the armed resistance movement in East Timor until his arrest by Indonesian forces in 1992. In 1996 two Timorese dissidents, Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo and José Ramos-Horta, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their nonviolent efforts to resolve the conflict.

At the urging of the Timorese and their supporters within the international community, in early 1999 President Habibie agreed to allow the East Timorese to vote on whether East Timor should become independent or an autonomous region within Indonesia. In May, Indonesia and Portugal, which had never recognized Indonesia’s annexation of East Timor, signed an accord detailing the autonomy measure for East Timor. The vote was held in August 1999, and the East Timorese voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence.

Backed by the Indonesian military, Timorese militia groups that had opposed autonomy reacted violently to the outcome of the vote. The militia went on a rampage throughout East Timor, destroying much of the infrastructure, murdering pro-independence supporters, and forcing large numbers of East Timorese to flee. After weeks of bloodshed, a UN peacekeeping mission intervened to stabilize the region. The UN administered East Timor until the territory gained full independence in May 2002, with Gusmão as president. The Indonesian military has come under governmental and UN scrutiny for its involvement in atrocities committed in East Timor.

Ever since the Republic of Indonesia was formed in 1945, the Indonesian government has struggled to prevent secessionist movements from splitting apart the nation. The demise of the authoritarian Suharto administration and the example of East Timor have encouraged independence groups in other parts of Indonesia to increase their demands.

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