Early Life:
Suharto was born in a village called Kemusuk, on the island of Java, in what was then the Dutch East Indies. His early childhood was difficult; his mother suffered a mental health breakdown when the baby was newborn, so he was sent to live with an elderly relative. His parents divorced soon after, and Suharto was only returned to his mother's care when he was three years old. For the rest of his childhood, he was passed between his parents' households and other relatives.
Unlike Sukarno and other nationalist leaders of Indonesia, Suharto lived in isolated villages where he did not have exposure to Europeans or the Dutch language. As a result, he had no interest in politics or the anti-imperial movement until later in life.
Early Military Career:
After finishing middle school, Suharto struggled to find work. He joined the Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) in June of 1940, at the age of 19. World War II was raging; the Nazis had just seized the Netherlands the previous month, and the Japanese were very interested in gaining access to Indonesia's oil fields, so the KNIL was recruiting as many men as it could get.
Suharto underwent a quick round of basic training, then served in the KNIL for almost two years before the Dutch surrendered the East Indies to Japan in March of 1942. Sergeant Suharto took off his KNIL uniform and blended back in to the mass of unemployed youth in the village. When the Japanese began hiring local police for Yogyakarta, Suharto joined.
The Japanese later transferred him to a Japanese-sponsored militia of Indonesians called the Defenders of the Fatherland (PETA), where Suharto got his first command position. The Japanese trained their Indonesian recruits in bushido and nationalist thought, although they were careful to aim that nationalism against western imperial powers, but never at Japan.
The Nationalist Revolution:
Two days after Japan surrendered at the end of World War II, Sukarno declared Indonesia's independence. Suharto became a battalion commander in the new republican army in October of 1945, and quickly rose to the rank of major. The Indonesian forces soon found themselves fighting Dutch and British troops, who were tasked with returning the archipelago to Dutch colonial control.
Major Suharto and his troops faced several years of tough fighting and harsh conditions in their guerrilla war against the Allies; with little financial support from the Republic of Indonesia's infant government, he smuggled opium to buy supplies for his men. In December of 1948, the Dutch forces captured the Indonesian capital at Yogyakarta and took Sukarno captive. Suharto counterattacked, and managed to retake the city on March 1, 1949. Under pressure from the United Nations, the Dutch formally withdrew and transferred sovereignty to the Indonesian government in December of 1949.
Meanwhile, as the revolution raged, in 1947 Suharto married Siti Hartinah from one of Java's noble families. They would have six children over the course of their 49-year marriage, which ended only with her death in 1996. With her, Suharto found the family stability that had been absent during his childhood.
Independent Indonesia:
Colonel Suharto spent the early years of Indonesian independence as a rising army officer, putting down rebellions around the country. His troops put down the 1950 Makassar Uprising in Sulawesi, and a 1952 rebellion by Army Battalion 426 in central Java, as well as battling Darul Islamist guerrillas and communist bandits in other parts of Java. The experience left Suharto with a life-long distaste for both Islamists and communists. During the latter half of the 1950s, Suharto once again funded his troops through complicity in smuggling operations, which led to his conviction on corruption charges in 1959.
Suharto was relieved of his command, but was transferred to an army academy rather than being drummed out of the military. Within a year, he had risen to the rank of brigadier-general, and was appointed deputy army chief-of-staff. By 1961, Suharto also had command of the new Strategic Reserve. His quick rise continued, and by 1965, he led the campaign to seize western New Guinea from the Dutch, forestalling the area's bid for independence.
President Sukarno, wanting to conciliate the two million members of Indonesia's communist party or PKI and prevent coups by the regular army, backed the plan to arm peasants and workers as a separate armed force in April 1965. General Suharto was extremely concerned that communism was growing by leaps and bounds as Indonesia's economy faltered, fostering high unemployment and wide-spread hunger.
In August, Sukarno publicly declared Indonesia's alliance with the People's Republic of China and other communist states. He warned the military not to interfere. By the end of the year, much to Major General Suharto's dismay, the communist PKI party had an additional million members.
The Slow-Motion Coup:
At 5:30 am on October 1, 1965, the tensions among President Sukarno the communists, and different factions of the military came to a head, when lower-ranked officers and enlisted men kidnapped and executed six generals. The coup leaders never had a chance to explain their motives. Scholars suggest that they were trying to prevent a planned October 5 coup against President Sukarno, which was supposed to install the murdered generals as a ruling junta. The soldiers occupied the area around the Presidential Palace as well as the radio and television stations, announcing that they had President Sukarno in protective custody.
Suharto, who was relatively apolitical, was not targeted in the coup. Some theories suggest that he actually helped plan the action, and then manipulated it for his own ends. In any case, when he heard about the murders, Suharto sprang into action and by 7 pm had persuaded the troops to give up control of the communications centers. At 9 pm, General Suharto announced on the air that he was in command of the Army, and that he would save Sukarno by destroying the counter-revolutionaries. Sukarno, meanwhile, fled to a different presidential palace in Bogor, western Java.
General Suharto soon announced that the PKI was to blame for the coup, despite Sukarno's conciliation attempts toward the communists. He offered no evidence to support this accusation, but the army then encouraged a bloody purge that left between 500,000 and a million suspected communists dead across Indonesia. The military and Islamists joined forces to eliminate communists, their rivals for power and public influence. On October 14, Sukarno formally appointed General Suharto as the commander of the Indonesian army.
Over the following year and a half, Suharto orchestrated a subtle campaign to undermine Sukarno's position. He used media propaganda, student demonstrations aided by the military, and manipulation of parliamentary elections to strengthen his own support without overtly opposing the president. On March 11, 1966, troops surrounded a cabinet meeting at Merdeka Palace, and Sukarno once again had to flee to Bogor.
Suharto allies forced the president to sign a decree granting Suharto full authority to take any measures necessary to maintain order. The next day, Suharto banned the PKI and began removing Sukarno's supporters from the government and the military, accusing them of communist sympathies. Suharto placed his own supporters as chiefs of the air force, navy, and police; they also immediately began to purge those branches of Sukarno loyalists. In June of 1966, the parliament stripped Sukarno of his President for Life title, but still Suharto did not depose him. It wasn't until March 12 of 1967 that parliament stripped Sukarno of his remaining powers and named Suharto the new acting president. On March 27, 1968, it formally appointed Suharto as the president of Indonesia.
President Suharto:
As President, Suharto instituted what he called a "New Order." It was based on a new ideology for Indonesia called Pancasila ("five principles"), which included nationalism, justice, deliberative consensus or representative democracy, social welfare, and monotheism. Monotheism in this case was an inclusive term, meant to embrace both Christians and Muslims, while clearly excluding atheist communists.
Another facet of the New Order was Dwifungsi or "Dual Function," which authorized the army to "participate in every effort and activity of the people in the fields of ideology, politics, and economics." Under General Suharto, Indonesia would be a thoroughly militarized society, with military officers as city mayors, provincial governors, foreign ambassadors, judges in civilian courts, and even CEOs of state-owned corporations.
Suharto continued his long record of corruption while in office, and his wife and children amassed huge fortunes over his long reign. Suharto also removed all potential rivals from power, sending them to obscure foreign countries as ambassadors or appointing them to military commands in backwaters. He also turned on the student activists who had helped him gain power, imprisoning student activists and sending the army to occupy campuses during student protests. In April of 1978, he banned on-campus political activities entirely.
To jump-start the economy, Suharto ended Sukarno's policy of self-reliance and opened Indonesia to foreign aid and investment. A number of international extraction companies soon gained leases for oil exploration, mining, and timber harvesting, creating large profits for many of Suharto's close allies. Suharto also remained officially neutral in the Cold War, but his record of anti-communist purges stood him in good stead with the west.
His international reputation suffered in 1975, however, when he authorized an invasion and annexation of the former Portuguese colony of East Timor. The brutal war there lasted until 1999, leaving hundreds of th
Early Life:
Suharto was born in a village called Kemusuk, on the island of Java, in what was then the Dutch East Indies. His early childhood was difficult; his mother suffered a mental health breakdown when the baby was newborn, so he was sent to live with an elderly relative. His parents divorced soon after, and Suharto was only returned to his mother's care when he was three years old. For the rest of his childhood, he was passed between his parents' households and other relatives.
Unlike Sukarno and other nationalist leaders of Indonesia, Suharto lived in isolated villages where he did not have exposure to Europeans or the Dutch language. As a result, he had no interest in politics or the anti-imperial movement until later in life.
Early Military Career:
After finishing middle school, Suharto struggled to find work. He joined the Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) in June of 1940, at the age of 19. World War II was raging; the Nazis had just seized the Netherlands the previous month, and the Japanese were very interested in gaining access to Indonesia's oil fields, so the KNIL was recruiting as many men as it could get.
Suharto underwent a quick round of basic training, then served in the KNIL for almost two years before the Dutch surrendered the East Indies to Japan in March of 1942. Sergeant Suharto took off his KNIL uniform and blended back in to the mass of unemployed youth in the village. When the Japanese began hiring local police for Yogyakarta, Suharto joined.
The Japanese later transferred him to a Japanese-sponsored militia of Indonesians called the Defenders of the Fatherland (PETA), where Suharto got his first command position. The Japanese trained their Indonesian recruits in bushido and nationalist thought, although they were careful to aim that nationalism against western imperial powers, but never at Japan.
The Nationalist Revolution:
Two days after Japan surrendered at the end of World War II, Sukarno declared Indonesia's independence. Suharto became a battalion commander in the new republican army in October of 1945, and quickly rose to the rank of major. The Indonesian forces soon found themselves fighting Dutch and British troops, who were tasked with returning the archipelago to Dutch colonial control.
Major Suharto and his troops faced several years of tough fighting and harsh conditions in their guerrilla war against the Allies; with little financial support from the Republic of Indonesia's infant government, he smuggled opium to buy supplies for his men. In December of 1948, the Dutch forces captured the Indonesian capital at Yogyakarta and took Sukarno captive. Suharto counterattacked, and managed to retake the city on March 1, 1949. Under pressure from the United Nations, the Dutch formally withdrew and transferred sovereignty to the Indonesian government in December of 1949.
Meanwhile, as the revolution raged, in 1947 Suharto married Siti Hartinah from one of Java's noble families. They would have six children over the course of their 49-year marriage, which ended only with her death in 1996. With her, Suharto found the family stability that had been absent during his childhood.
Independent Indonesia:
Colonel Suharto spent the early years of Indonesian independence as a rising army officer, putting down rebellions around the country. His troops put down the 1950 Makassar Uprising in Sulawesi, and a 1952 rebellion by Army Battalion 426 in central Java, as well as battling Darul Islamist guerrillas and communist bandits in other parts of Java. The experience left Suharto with a life-long distaste for both Islamists and communists. During the latter half of the 1950s, Suharto once again funded his troops through complicity in smuggling operations, which led to his conviction on corruption charges in 1959.
Suharto was relieved of his command, but was transferred to an army academy rather than being drummed out of the military. Within a year, he had risen to the rank of brigadier-general, and was appointed deputy army chief-of-staff. By 1961, Suharto also had command of the new Strategic Reserve. His quick rise continued, and by 1965, he led the campaign to seize western New Guinea from the Dutch, forestalling the area's bid for independence.
President Sukarno, wanting to conciliate the two million members of Indonesia's communist party or PKI and prevent coups by the regular army, backed the plan to arm peasants and workers as a separate armed force in April 1965. General Suharto was extremely concerned that communism was growing by leaps and bounds as Indonesia's economy faltered, fostering high unemployment and wide-spread hunger.
In August, Sukarno publicly declared Indonesia's alliance with the People's Republic of China and other communist states. He warned the military not to interfere. By the end of the year, much to Major General Suharto's dismay, the communist PKI party had an additional million members.
The Slow-Motion Coup:
At 5:30 am on October 1, 1965, the tensions among President Sukarno the communists, and different factions of the military came to a head, when lower-ranked officers and enlisted men kidnapped and executed six generals. The coup leaders never had a chance to explain their motives. Scholars suggest that they were trying to prevent a planned October 5 coup against President Sukarno, which was supposed to install the murdered generals as a ruling junta. The soldiers occupied the area around the Presidential Palace as well as the radio and television stations, announcing that they had President Sukarno in protective custody.
Suharto, who was relatively apolitical, was not targeted in the coup. Some theories suggest that he actually helped plan the action, and then manipulated it for his own ends. In any case, when he heard about the murders, Suharto sprang into action and by 7 pm had persuaded the troops to give up control of the communications centers. At 9 pm, General Suharto announced on the air that he was in command of the Army, and that he would save Sukarno by destroying the counter-revolutionaries. Sukarno, meanwhile, fled to a different presidential palace in Bogor, western Java.
General Suharto soon announced that the PKI was to blame for the coup, despite Sukarno's conciliation attempts toward the communists. He offered no evidence to support this accusation, but the army then encouraged a bloody purge that left between 500,000 and a million suspected communists dead across Indonesia. The military and Islamists joined forces to eliminate communists, their rivals for power and public influence. On October 14, Sukarno formally appointed General Suharto as the commander of the Indonesian army.
Over the following year and a half, Suharto orchestrated a subtle campaign to undermine Sukarno's position. He used media propaganda, student demonstrations aided by the military, and manipulation of parliamentary elections to strengthen his own support without overtly opposing the president. On March 11, 1966, troops surrounded a cabinet meeting at Merdeka Palace, and Sukarno once again had to flee to Bogor.
Suharto allies forced the president to sign a decree granting Suharto full authority to take any measures necessary to maintain order. The next day, Suharto banned the PKI and began removing Sukarno's supporters from the government and the military, accusing them of communist sympathies. Suharto placed his own supporters as chiefs of the air force, navy, and police; they also immediately began to purge those branches of Sukarno loyalists. In June of 1966, the parliament stripped Sukarno of his President for Life title, but still Suharto did not depose him. It wasn't until March 12 of 1967 that parliament stripped Sukarno of his remaining powers and named Suharto the new acting president. On March 27, 1968, it formally appointed Suharto as the president of Indonesia.
President Suharto:
As President, Suharto instituted what he called a "New Order." It was based on a new ideology for Indonesia called Pancasila ("five principles"), which included nationalism, justice, deliberative consensus or representative democracy, social welfare, and monotheism. Monotheism in this case was an inclusive term, meant to embrace both Christians and Muslims, while clearly excluding atheist communists.
Another facet of the New Order was Dwifungsi or "Dual Function," which authorized the army to "participate in every effort and activity of the people in the fields of ideology, politics, and economics." Under General Suharto, Indonesia would be a thoroughly militarized society, with military officers as city mayors, provincial governors, foreign ambassadors, judges in civilian courts, and even CEOs of state-owned corporations.
Suharto continued his long record of corruption while in office, and his wife and children amassed huge fortunes over his long reign. Suharto also removed all potential rivals from power, sending them to obscure foreign countries as ambassadors or appointing them to military commands in backwaters. He also turned on the student activists who had helped him gain power, imprisoning student activists and sending the army to occupy campuses during student protests. In April of 1978, he banned on-campus political activities entirely.
To jump-start the economy, Suharto ended Sukarno's policy of self-reliance and opened Indonesia to foreign aid and investment. A number of international extraction companies soon gained leases for oil exploration, mining, and timber harvesting, creating large profits for many of Suharto's close allies. Suharto also remained officially neutral in the Cold War, but his record of anti-communist purges stood him in good stead with the west.
His international reputation suffered in 1975, however, when he authorized an invasion and annexation of the former Portuguese colony of East Timor. The brutal war there lasted until 1999, leaving hundreds of th
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