Mort de Suharto

[Ronnie Hayek]

http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/tops…s.php?id=125494

Suharto dead

By John Hail, dpa

Jakarta - Ex-dictator Suharto has died in hospital of multiple organ failure at 86. He leaves a mixed legacy: He presided over the modernisation of Indonesia but at the cost of massive corruption, nepotism and widespread human-rights abuses.

The quiet leader, dubbed the "father of development" by his supporters, formulated the policies that brought orderly development to the vast Indonesian archipelago and its 210 million people and tapped its vast resources of oil, gas, minerals and timber.

But Suharto's hold on power was tight, and he tolerated no challenges to his rule, dealing harshly with critics and moving rapidly to cut off political challenges.

Ironically, chronic health problems from several strokes in recent years enabled him to escape justice, as did other Asian dictators, including Pol Pot of Cambodia and Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines.

Suharto's military-dominated Golkar party, his political tool for 32 years, played the central role in Indonesian politics during his 1966-1998 rule.

Golkar, which won six staged elections during the Suharto regime, retained the trappings of civilian rule under a national philosophy - Pancasila - that promoted cooperation and integration among the bewildering array of ethnic and religious groups that make up Indonesia.

But critics said the centralisation of political and economic power in the hands of Suharto and his family resulted in staggering corruption and nepotism, which fuelled anger among tens of millions of poor residents during the latter days of his rule.

Ultimately, Suharto was forced from power in May 1998 amid civil unrest and mass demonstrations as the country plunged into its worst economic crisis in decades.

His "New Order" regime was inundated by a popular reform movement, or reformasi, which led to press freedoms and free speech, the formation of new political parties and Indonesia's first free election in decades in June 1999.

However, attempts to bring him to trial were thwarted by his defence attorneys and the courts, and his family's influence behind the scenes.

The Supreme Court in early 2001 upheld a lower court ruling that Suharto was medically unfit to stand trial for corruption and could not be tried until he recovered. The ruling all but ended hopes for justice among countless Indonesians who suffered from his oppressive policies.

Suharto was born on June 8, 1921, and was reared in his home farming village of Kemusu, central Java, in an atmosphere dominated by the belief and imagination fostered by Javanese mysticism.

As he reached adulthood, Suharto embarked on a swift rise to the top of the Indonesian armed forces, which became his ticket to power and fortune.

In 1944, he was a company commander, but his career took off after the declaration of the Independent Republic of Indonesia on August 17, 1945, when he led a successful resistance campaign in central Java against retreating Dutch colonial forces.

In 1962, Suharto went to bed an unknown army general on the night of September 30, 1965, but awoke the next day to a political crisis that would catapult him to power.

A leftist coup attempt had begun overnight, and Suharto rushed to the scene and negotiated the surrender of rebel army troops.

After the coup bid, the Indonesian Communist Party, which had been the largest outside the Communist bloc, was brutally smashed. A bloodbath followed that lasted until 1996, during which as many as 500,000 people accused of being communists were killed.

Suharto then stripped his predecessor, the revered president Sukarno, of his dictatorial powers. By mid-1966, Suharto firmly held power and, two years later, won his first of six five-year terms as president.

Maintaining a smiling grandfatherly demeanour, Suharto enjoyed being called the "Bapak," a reverential form of the Indonesian word for father.

The Jakarta rumour mill often buzzed with tales of Suharto's consultations with gurus and mystical seers. A nominal Muslim like many of his countrymen, Suharto's spiritual development was rooted in the animist tradition of his native Java.

In 1975, Indonesian army troops seized East Timor, half of an island territory, after it was abandoned by its Portuguese colonisers. Suharto declared it Indonesia's 27th province, an action never recognised by the United Nations.

Harsh suppression of pro-independence forces in East Timor, as well as separatist movements in the restive provinces of Irian Jaya and Aceh, made Suharto a prime target of human-rights organisations.

Indonesia widened its economic opening to the outside world in 1987 with de-regulation spurring the high-flying Jakarta Stock Exchange and opening the way for direct foreign investment.

Suharto's policies were credited with cutting the proportion of people living under the poverty line from about 60 per cent - or 70 million people - in the 1970s to about 15 per cent - or 26 million people - in the mid-1990s.

Through mid-1997, Indonesia had basked in a 6.5-per-cent annual growth rate, earning plaudits from the World Bank for being a model of national economic development.

Then a regional economic meltdown began. The Indonesian rupiah and domestic markets crashed, and ailing Indonesia became the focus of world attention and concern.

An 80-per-cent plunge in the rupiah's value against the US dollar triggered food riots over price increases and large student demonstrations demanding that Suharto step down.

Nearly 10 years after his fall, Indonesia has continued on the path of reform, with the fight against corruption at all levels of government a key point in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's election platform.

For this reason, even as the former dictator's health continued to spiral downward, calls to bring to justice Suharto - considered by some one of the worst perpetrators of graft in recent history - went unabated.

German anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International recently ranked Suharto the world's most corrupt politician over the past two decades, claiming his family amassed a fortune of up to 35 billion dollars in ill-gotten gains.

For many, Suharto's son, notorious billionaire playboy Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, epitomised the corruption and lawlessness of the country's elite during his father's 32-year reign.

Tommy Suharto was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2002 for the murder of a 61-year-old Supreme Court justice who was shot dead at close range as he drove his car in 2001. The judge had handed the younger Suharto an 18-month prison sentence for an 11-million-dollar property scam in 2000. He was freed in 2006 after serving just a third of the sentence.

But the reduction of Tommy Suharto's sentence in August 2005 by five years was, for some, a reflection of the long way Indonesia still has to go to curb corruption and the influence of the country's elite, a process that could have been hastened had Suharto been brought to justice.

Days before Suharto's death, the new government's attorney general's office renewed efforts to bring Suharto to trial despite persistent claims by the former president's doctors and lawyers that Suharto remained unfit for the courtroom.

[Rincevent]

J'avais lu trop rapidement le début : "Ex-dictator Suharto has died in hospital of multiple orgasm"…