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| Politics: Indonesia's Presidents |
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Sukarno
(1901-1970; ruled 1945-1966)
Sukarno was the first president of Indonesia, and is considered the “father of the country” by many Indonesians. He founded an independence movement in 1927, and was subsequently repeatedly jailed and exiled by the Dutch . His anti-colonial activities continued throughout World War II, and when the war ended he and fellow nationalist leader Mohammed Hatt declared Indonesia’s independence. The independence struggle against the Dutch finally ended in 1949, with Sukarno as president of the new nation. Throughout the 1950s, Sukarno consolidated the disparate islands that make up Indonesia. In 1956 he established a “guided democracy,” with diverse political parties represented in a constituent assembly, but he encountered many factional and regional problems. As a result, in 1959 he dissolved parliament and assumed full dictatorial powers; four years later he declared himself “president for life.” Western powers were antagonized by Sukarno’s actions to annex Dutch New Guinea in 1962-63, and increase ties with Communist China in the 1960s (in addition to including Communists within his government). He strongly opposed the creation of the Federation of Malaysia, withdrawing from the UN in 1965 in protest. Later that year, an attempted Communist coup led to Sukarno’s fall from power. In response to the attempted coup, General Suharto of the military took over the government, relieving Sukarno of his presidency. The following year he lost his title of “president for life,” and was kept under house arrest until his death four years later.
Suharto
(1921- ; ruled 1966-1998)
Suharto started his career as a lieutenant-general in the Army Strategic Reserve. He used the 1965 failed coup as a pretext for taking power, and purging the Communists. During his reign, Suharto was dubbed “the smiling general,” but behind the smile many sawa ruthlessness against all who opposed him. Suharto’s policies, though undemocratic, brought a measure of prosperity to Indonesia. His ‘New Order’ regime was remarkably stable from 1976 until 1988. After this time, the regime was undermined by the increasing greed and corruption of Suharto’s children, and overly harsh responses to renewed separatism. The Indonesian people began to feel that the price they were paying for stability and relative prosperity under Suharto was too high. The corruption and nepotism of the economy made Indonesia particularly susceptible to the Asian financial crisis of 1997. In the aftermath of the crisis, amid riots and widespread protests against his rule, Suharto stepped down. Despite the many calls for a trial against Suharto on the charges of corruption (and possibly human rights abuses), he lives in a guarded house in Jakarta, protected from legal proceedings by his poor health.
B.J. Habibie
(1936 - ; ruled 1998-1999)
Suharto’s vice-president and a Muslim leader, Habibie took over the leadership of Indonesia when Suharto stepped down, in a constitutionally sanctioned move. Habibie was trained as an aeronautical engineer in Germany. Under Suharto, he worked as the minister of research and technology before his selection for the vice-presidency only a year before Suharto’s resignation. During his brief tenure, Habibie attempted to win over the opposition by dismissing the most obvious beneficiaries of Suharto’s nepotism. Habibie’s time was marred, however, by the 1999 crisis in East Timor. Indonesia declared martial law there after the UN organized East Timorese independence vote and the resulting violence. This crisis brought Indonesia to the brink of war against Australia, the leader of the multinational peacekeeping forces that entered East Timor in September 1999 to quell the fighting. In the eyes of many Indonesians, Habibie’s rule remained associated with Suharto’s undemocratic rule, and he was defeated in the 1999 election which brought Wahid and Megawati to power.
Abdurahman Wahid
(1940 - ; ruled 1999-2001)
A moderate Muslim cleric, Wahid (nicknamed Gus Dur) became well known as the leader of Nahdlatul Ulama, a mainstream Muslim organization with a membership of over 30 million. Despite being almost blind and having suffered two strokes, Wahid ran for president in 1999. The election proved extremely close, with the popular daughter of Sukarno, Megawati Sukarnoputri, running neck-and-neck with Wahid. Wahid won the presidency as a compromise candidate between extreme Muslims, and secular nationalists (such as Megawati). Observers have also suggested that many in the predominantly Muslim country were unprepared to see a woman take over the presidency. Because of this thin margin of victory and tenuous coalition of backers, Wahid suffered from a lack of perceived legitimacy throughout his brief rule, frequently struggling with parliament. His leadership was considered by many to be rudderless and capricious, marked by ad-hoc decisions. In the final months of his presidency, he was increasingly preoccupied by a fraught struggle for power with his vice presidenct, Megawati. Indonesians joked that Sukarno’s rule had been the time of “Old Order,” Suharto’s, “New Order,” Habibe’s, “No Order,” and Wahid’s, “Out of Order.” Wahid was unable to deal effectively with both the economic problems that followed the Asian financial crisis, and the separatist movements (notably in Aceh, Irian Jaya, Timor, and Maluku). Two financial scandals, involving improper use of aid money, were the immediate cause of to his impeachment and removal in July 2001. During the crisis, Wahid attempted to declare a state of emergency, but the police military leaders ignored this call.
Megawati Sukarnoputri
(1947- ; rules 2001- )
As the daughter of Sukarno, Megawati’s close involvement with politics came as no surprise. In 1987, as a self-described “former housewife,” she joined the Indonesian Democracy Party (PDI), and she and her husband won seats in the House of Representatives. She rose to the leadership of the PDI in 1993. In the process, she developed a great popular following, based on her background and her reputation for opposing corruption. Suharto tried to thwart her career in 1996 by arranging her forced removal from the PDI leadership, but this strategy backfired, riots raged in Jakarta , and Megawati’s popularity increased. Banned from the 1997 election, she formed her own party, PDI-P (Indonesian Democracy Party of Struggle). In the 1999 presidential election, Megawati came extremely close to victory, but was politically outmaneuvered by Wahid. Nonetheless, she was elected vice-president by the legislature, and came to be considered a real possibility for the next presidency as Wahid’s rule grew increasingly precarious. In August 2000, Wahid transferred the day-to-day administration of the government to Megawati. On July 24, 2001, after Wahid’s declared “state of emergency” failed and he stepped down, she took over as president. Despite her popularity, Megawati has been criticized by some for a lack of political courage, too close ties with the military, a lack of understanding of the common people, and excessive frivolity. Some have also questioned her intellect. Finally, there is some concern that because of her nationalist leanings, she could ruthlessly crush any separatist movements rather than negotiating. Concerns that she would anger Muslims with her secular leanings were somewhat assuaged by the choice of Hamza Haz, a prominent Muslim leader, as her vice-president. She has been praised by some commentators for political shrewdness, and her career and background may provide her with the political clout she needs to overcome the many problems facing Indonesia.
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