Former Indonesian President Suharto is in hospital again, with signs of internal bleeding. The old dictator has had a couple of strokes, and has played those as a mastercard, to avoid appearing in court on corruption charges. Most dictators, mass murderers and other soundrels use the ‘failing health’ excuse to slide out of court and Suharto has plenty of friends in Jakarta.
According to the BBC, Suharto does not want an ‘exploratory probe’ inserted into his intestine. I’d give him more than an exploratory probe, how about a red hot poker. Who knows how long he will last, and what his lasting legacy will be. Many people in Indonesia like him, because he ‘dealt with problems’, kept petrol and rice cheap and made a lot out of Indonesian nationalism.
Subscribe
|
Print
|
Share             
|
mind your language nick
Nick
What did Suharto do to you
Nothing at all I suspect.
Despite all his wrong-doings Suharto kept this country together when the rest of the world was falling apart.
Eddie,
1. Suharto did nothing to me, neither did Hitler or Stalin. I don’t particularly respect any of them.
2. Suharto kept the country together when the rest of the world was falling apart. I think that’s glossing over some huge cracks. Sure, he used Indonesian police, military, militias , to terrorize and kill people. His own population was scared shitless to speak out against him, so order was kept.
Read any book on Indonesian history to get an idea of how many people were murdered. I don’t know why people want to celebrate this guy. He kept Indonesians living at a lower level than necessary for along time. Dictators don’t want an educated population, they want the status quo to remain the same.
G’day Nick,
Soeharto was a great man, it was his children that were the corrupt shits and subsequently the man was tarred with the same brush.
At least during the Soeharto era, almost everybody had a job, the inflation rate was the lowest Indonesia had ever known, development was at such a high peak in the industries that Indonesia was classified as the most progressive South-East nation in the region.
Poverty was practically non-existent, and the crime rate was low. Children attended school and the whole country was unified as ‘one’.
Just look at Indonesia now since his downfall. Don’t judge the man, judge his children.
Barrie you are entirely correct.
The transition from the Autocracy to Democracy in Indonesia has been relatively without incident.
Having lived in Indonesia as an Expat through both periods one only sees minor changes.
Unfortunately people believe everything they read without experiencing the history first hand.
Barrie knows
Yeah… or we can judge him that he can not manage his family!
Nick, How do the charges stick? That man must have more freinds in high places than a crooked politician has lies, so I can’t see how these charges survive.