Indonesia: The Suharto Regime

The Suharto Regime

The coup was swiftly thwarted by army forces under General Suharto, who blamed the coup on the PKI (the degree of its involvement is unclear); Suharto may have known of the plot in advance. Suharto gradually assumed power (although retaining Sukarno as symbolic leader). Thousands of alleged Communists were executed; people everywhere took the law into their own hands and a widespread massacre ensued (Oct.–Dec., 1965). Estimates of the number of people killed range from 500,000 to 1 million; many ethnic Chinese died, and in E and central Java and in Bali entire villages were wiped out. In 2012 Indonesia's National Commission on Human Rights called the events a gross violation of human rights.

The new government steadily increased its power, aided by massive student demonstrations against Sukarno. General Suharto brought an end (1966) to hostilities against Malaysia, banned the PKI, reestablished close ties with the United States, and reentered (1966) the United Nations. Indonesia became one of the founding countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1967. On Mar. 12, 1967, the national assembly voted Sukarno out of power altogether and named General Suharto acting president.

Suharto was elected president in 1968, and reelected in 1973, 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, and 1998. His government reinstated an earlier Dutch colonial policy of “transmigration,” in which farmers from the overpopulated islands of Java and Bali were moved to underpopulated areas such as Kalimantan, Sumatra, and Indonesian New Guinea. The policy has had mixed results; though more than six million had moved by the 1990s, Java and Bali continue to be heavily populated. The economy began to grow rapidly in the 1970s, due mainly to expanded oil, gas, and timber exports; in the 1980s and 90s manufacturing for export became important.

In 1975–76, Indonesia annexed East Timor (a former Portuguese colony), and incorporated it as a province of the country; the takeover was not recognized by the United Nations. Following the annexation, separatists in the largely Roman Catholic province resisted Indonesian control, suffering substantial loss of life. Indonesia came under increasing criticism from the United States and international organizations for human-rights abuses in the area.

During Suharto's regime, his family held sway over much of Indonesia's economic life, and government corruption increased. While the economic conditions of many Indonesians improved, opposition to his policies continued to be suppressed. In Oct., 1997, the country was plunged into economic upheaval when its currency plummeted. The stock market followed soon after, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed to provide the country with a $40 billion aid package in exchange for economic reforms. Struggling under a huge foreign debt and Suharto's reluctance to implement the IMF reforms, Indonesia's economy continued to worsen in 1998. Student protests and riots over rising prices broke out across the country, with increasing demands for Suharto to resign. Suharto stepped down in May, 1998, and his vice president, B. J. Habibie, assumed the presidency, pledging reform, clean government, and economic responsibility. In June, the government reached an agreement with foreign bankers on the rescheduling of nearly $80 billion in debt.

Early in 1999, Indonesia and Portugal reached an agreement permitting the people of East Timor to choose between limited autonomy within Indonesia and independence in a referendum. Fighting in East Timor between government security forces and anti-independence militias on one side and separatist guerrillas on the other increased in mid-1999 as the vote approached. In August, voters chose independence, but the territory descended into chaos as pro-Indonesian militias and the army engaged in a campaign of terror and brutality, killing proindependence Timorese and causing thousands to flee their homes. In Sept., 1999, after intense international pressure, President Habibie asked the United Nations to send a peacekeeping force to the area, and in October the United Nations agreed to take full control of East Timor until independence, which was achieved in 2002. Even as the situation in East Timor quieted down, however, calls for independence rose in other provinces, particularly Aceh, in N Sumatra, and Papua.

Meanwhile, in the June, 1999, parliamentary elections, the Indonesian Democratic party of Struggle of Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of Sukarno, came in first with 34% of the vote; President Habibie's Golkar party came in second, with 22%. In the Oct., 1999, presidential elections, Abdurrahman Wahid, of the National Awakening party, became the country's first democratically elected president after Megawati failed to build the coalition needed to win; she was chosen by parliament as vice president. A Muslim theologian and religious leader, as well as a defender of human rights and religious tolerance, Wahid moved to increase civilian control over the military, which lost influence and prestige following Suharto's fall and the East Timor debacle. He also was forced to deal with often vociferous opposition in parliament. The economy began to revive in 2000, although the currency (rupiah) suffered a sharp loss in value.

In Feb., 2001, the parliament censured the president, who was implicated in two corruption scandals. Wahid, who had alienated Megawati and suffered a drop in popularity, was censured again in April. Although he was subsequently cleared of wrongdoing in the scandals, the parliament voted in July to remove him from office. Megawati succeeded Wahid as president. Subsequently the parliament passed laws granting limited autonomy (including substantial control over natural resources) to Aceh and Papua, in the hope of undercutting local secessionist movements, but violence in both provinces has continued. An agreement was signed with the Aceh rebels in Dec., 2002, raising hopes for peace that were dashed six months later when Indonesia ended what it regarded as fruitless talks and resumed military action.

Relations were strained with Malaysia in 2002 when as many as 400,000 Indonesians were forcibly deported under a tough new anti-illegal-immigrant law. Constitutional amendments passed in the same year called for the direct election of the president and the elimination of the seats reserved for the military in the national legislature. Both amendments took effect in 2004. In Oct., 2002, a terrorist bombing at a night club in Bali that was frequented by foreigners killed more than 200 people. The bombing was apparently by Indonesian Islamic radicals linked to Al Qaeda. Terror bombings continued to be a sporadic problem in subsequent years, though none were as deadly as the Bali night club attack. A proposal in 2003 to split Papua into three provinces sparked new unrest there, and after legals appeals Papua was divided (2004) into Papua and West Irian Jaya (now West Papua).

Legislative elections in Apr., 2004, were a setback for Megawati's party, which came in second to Golkar; the latter won slightly more than a fourth of the seats. Seven parties secured significant blocks of seats. Megawati subsequently lost the presidency (Sept., 2004) to Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a former general and security minister and the candidate of the Democrat party, after a runoff in Sept., 2004. The election was the first time that Indonesians were able to elect a president directly.

In Dec., 2004, a huge tsunami caused by an earthquake off NW Sumatra devastated Aceh, killing some 167,000 people, and a subsequent earthquake in March, caused much destruction on the islands of Simeulue and Nias, west of Sumatra. There was a polio outbreak in Java in May, 2005, that was linked to the persistence of the disease in W Africa and was believed to have been transmitted to Muslim pilgrims at Mecca. Indonesia began a massive immunization campaign that ultimately brought the outbreak under control. Acehnese rebels signed a peace agreement with the government in Aug., 2005, and subsequently disarmed in exchange for the establishment of local self-government. In May, 2006, an earthquake centered S of Yogyakarta in central Java killed some 5,800 people; a July quake off W Java caused a tsunami that killed some 400 people. Heavy rains caused massive flooding in the Jakarta area in Feb., 2007, forcing as many as 400,000 people from their homes. A series of severe earthquakes in Sept., 2007, caused caused much damage in W Sumatra.

In the parliamentary elections in Apr., 2009, the president's Democratic party won 148 seats; Golkar came in second (108 seats), followed by Megawati's party (93), and six other parties won seats. The July presidential elections were contested by Yudhoyono, Megawati, and, running as Golkar's candidate, Vice President Jusuf Kalla; the president secured a majority, avoiding a runoff election. An earthquake off the coast of W Sumatra in Sept., 2009, caused significant destruction and more than a thousand deaths in Padang and the surrounding area. In Nov., 2009, a scandal concerning attempts by high-ranking law-enforcement officials to damage the reputation of Indonesia's anticorruption agency by bringing false charges against two of its top officials hurt Yudhoyono when he failed to dismiss the law-enforcement officials. Subsequently, the president and his party were hurt by corruption investigations involving party members, including the party chairman in 2013.

In the Apr., 2014, parliamentary elections Megawati's party placed first with 109 seats, Golkar placed second with 91, and Gerinda, the party led by former general Prabowo Subianto, placed third with 73. Ten parties in all won seats. In the subsequent presidential election (July), Subianto was supported by a coalition of parties (including Golkar) that had won more than 60% of the seats in April, but his opponent, Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi and nominated by a coalition led by Megawati's party, was a popular anticorruption candidate and governor of Jakarta and won with 53% of the vote. In Sept., 2018, an earthquake and tsunami killed more than 4,300 people in W Sulawesi, and in December a tsunami caused by the partial collapse of the island volcano of Anak Krakatau (see Krakatoa) killed hundreds in nearby Java and Sumatra.

In the Apr., 2019, presidential election, the president again faced Subianto, and again defeated him, with 55% of the vote. Subianto accused the government of fraud, but the evidence for the allegations proved flimsy and the result was affirmed. Joko Widodo subsequently proposed moving Indonesia's capital to East Kalimantan prov. on Borneo, but plans to develop a new capital were suspended in 2020 amid the covid-19 pandemic. A racial incident in Aug., 2019, involving Papuan students in Surabaya sparked several weeks of recurring protests and rioting by Papuans, beginning in West Papua but spreading to other parts of Indonesia. In Oct., 2019, the president named Subianto defense minister. Extremely heavy rains in W Java in Jan., 2020, led to flooding that displaced nearly 400,000 people in the Jakarta metropolitan area. Later in 2020 the country experienced its first recession since the 1998 financial crisis due to the effects of COVID-19; the important tourism sector was especially hard hit. Corruption and attacks by Islamic extremists have been significant problems in the early 21st cent.

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