INDONESIA The name Indonesia has its roots in two Greek words which is Indos which means Indian

and Nesos meaning island. It aptly described the archipelago as there are an estimated total of 17,508 islands, of which only about 6,000 are inhabited, stretching for 5,150 km between the Australian and Asian continental mainland and dividing the Pacific and Indian Oceans at the Equator. Five main islands, Sumatra (473,606 sq.km), Kalimantan (1539,400 sq.km), Sulawesi (189,216 sq.km), Irian Jaya (421,981 sq.km), and Java (132,187 sq.km) consists of 70 percent of the countrys population plus another 30 smaller archipelagoes are home to the majority of the countrys population. Indonesia shares Irian Jaya with Papua New Guinea and two thirds of the island of Kalimantan with Malaysia and Borneo. About 583 languages and dialects are spoken in the archipelago which belongs to the diverse ethnic groups of the population. Some of the distinctly different local languages are, for example, Acehnese, Batak, Sundanese, Javanese, Sasak Tetum of Timor, Dayak, Minahasa, Toraja, Buginese, Halmahera, Ambonese, Ceramese and several Irianese languages. In order to make the picture even more colorful, these languages are also spoken in different dialects. However, Bahasa Indonesia is the national language which similar to the Malay language, it is written in Roman script and based on European orthography. In all the main tourist destination areas English is the number one foreign language fairly spoken and written, whereas some Dutch is still spoken and understood in the bigger cities and French is more and more popular at the better hotels and restaurants.

BACKGROUND Suharto was born in Kemusuk, a part of the larger village of Godean, 15 kilometers west of Yogyakarta, in the Javanese heartland on 8th June 1921 during the Dutch colonial era, but some mystery surrounds the details. His Javanese peasant parents divorced only just after his birth, and he was passed between foster parents for much of his childhood. He claimed to be from poor peasant stock but his education, connections with the lower echelons of government, and later indifference to his native village suggest he was the illegitimate son of someone relatively well-placed. During the Second World War, he joined Peta, the Japanese-organised Indonesian army as a platoon commander. In the Indonesia revolution he mainly served around the headquarters of the Republic of Yogyakarta. This brought him into factional conflicts both to his distrust of civilian politicians and his opposition to communism. Indonesias independence struggle saw Suharto joining the newly formed Indonesian army and quickly rose to the rank of major general following Indonesia independence. An attempted coup on 30 September 1965 blamed on the Indonesian Communist Party was countered by Suharto-led troops. He subsequently led an anti-communist purge, and wrested power from Indonesias founding president, Sukarno. Suharto was appointed acting president in 1967 and the following year, President.

While stationed in Central Java after independence, Suharto rose to command the Diponegoro Division during which time he acquired experience handling business connections and managing army cooperatives and foundations. It was there that he met many who would play important roles in his later career (including, his eventual successor as president, Habibie, whom he met while on a stint in Makasar). He was later (in 1959), sent to the Army Staff and Command School and proceeded from there to high commands: initially, the Mandala command for the liberation of West Irian and the Kostrad, which was the army strategic reserve. Along with other officers, Suharto helped to stall Army involvement during the Confrontation with Malaya, which was started by his predecessor, Sukarno, and by 1965 Suharto was a key player in the uneasy balance between the communist party, the armed forces, and Sukarno. The 30th September 1965 or Gestapu coup attempt unleashed the pent-up tension. Following the coup, the communist party was completely destroyed and a complex power struggle between Suharto and Sukarno surfaced. The Supersemar decree of 11 March 1966 gave Suharto effective power as Acting President in 1967 well before his formal appointment as the second Indonesian President in 1968 and continued holding the office for 31 years until his resignation in 1998. In Indonesian literature and media, Suharto was sometimes affectionately referred as Pak Harto. CONTRIBUTIONS

The early years of Suhartos reign saw the achievement of stability and some economic advances. Realizing that economic growth was critical to his success as leader, Suharto cultivated good relations with the United States and the World Bank which brought in lots of investments and benefits to those in poverty and saw the rise of local capitalists. The legacy of Suhartos 32-year rule is debated by his supporters and detractors both in Indonesian and abroad. Under his New Order administration, Suharto set up a strong, centralized and military-dominated government. By so doing, he was able to maintain sustainable stability, and exercised absolute control over a sprawling and diverse Indonesian state. In order to provide legitimacy for his rule, Suharto sought to develop Indonesias economy and improve the livelihoods of Indonesians. His government introduced pro-growth macroeconomic policies originally arranged by a group of American-trained economists, while encouraging a group of mostly ethnic-Chinese businessmen who were dependent on him to expand their businesses. By the late 1990s, before the financial crisis of 1998, these companies have become large conglomerates which still dominate Indonesian economy today. In view of the small domestic capital base at the beginning of his rule, he also sought to attract foreign investments into Indonesia,. For the most part of his presidency, Indonesia experienced significant economic growth and industrialization, greatly improving health, education and living standards. Suhartos investor-friendly policies and mild foreign policies compared with his predecessor Sukarno, and a strong anti-Communist stance won him the economic and diplomatic

support of the international community, particularly the West (most notably, the United States), Japan, and neighbouring Southeast Asian countries. By promoting rapid development with new ports, roadways, mines and manufacturing zones that by 1990 had turned the impoverished nation into a budding tiger economy, Indonesias growth model was hailed as a blueprint for the rest of the developing world. In 1996, in praising the countrys 8 per cent annual economic growth, the International Monetary Fund included Indonesia in its list of top 10 emerging economies. During Suhartos reign, poverty in Indonesia decreased from 60 percent in 1966 to 15 percent in 1990. Indonesia achieved self-sufficiency in rice production and near-universal enrollment of primary school children. Life expectancy, according to demographers, rose by some 20 percent from 1968 to 1990. Politically, Suhartos early years as President saw the curbing of political parties and the creation of his ruling Golkar Party. Suharto continued making use of anti-communist ideology and rhetoric to mobilize support from within and outside Indonesia. The corporatization of politics and his personal connections with SinoIndonesian businessmen brought about criticisms of corruption and nepotism. However, the decade from 1973 was more difficult. There was discontent in the army elite, most notably of which was the Malari affair of January 1974, when Kopkamtib commander Sumitro allowed riots to get out of hand in an attempt to discredit opponents, and the 1980 Petition of 50, criticizing army collaboration with

Golkar. Other problems included continuing student and social unrest, the Pertamina scandal, and the occupation of East Timor. Despite controversies over an extra-judicial state terror campaign (the Petrus killings), army reforms, an oil crisis, the role of his children and patrimonialism (a form of governance in which all power flows directly from the leader) and corruption more generally, in the decade following the 1983 presidential election saw Suharto enjoying nearly undisputed ascendancy . The 1988 elections saw the appointment of Sudharmono as vice-president, seen by political analysts as part of a broader move away from the army. As he aged, Suharto faced the loss of friends from his own generation and in particular, his wife Ibu Tien in 1996, a decline in personal ties to subordinates, and a general loss of touch. He fell back on his familiars and tried to find new sources of support, he promoted Habibie rapidly (though the army imposed Try Sutrisno as vice-president in 1993), indulged his children (despite criticisms of nepotism), tried to bolster his Islamic credentials (risking ethnic and religious sectarianism), and took a growing interest in his status as an international leader. By the 1990s, corruption and the authoritarianism of Suhartos New Order led to discontent among Indonesians, most notably the younger generations. Suhartos children were allowed to set-up businesses monopolizing key sectors of economy, ventures which mostly relied on their fathers political influence. Such nepotistic policies greatly damaged support for Suhartos rule amongst the new upper and middle class created by the New Orders decades of high growth.

In the name of securing stability required for economic development of the country, many political and democratic freedoms and rights to the Indonesian people were denied by Suharto. Additionally, Suharto was accused of employing brutality against his political opponents, especially the anti-communist massacres at the beginning of his rule. Suharto controversially ordered the invasion and annexation of East Timor. However, in the years after his presidency, attempts to try him on charges of corruption failed because of his poor health and continued strong support for him within the country. There was strong support for Suharto's presidency throughout the 1970s until mid-1990s but eroded following the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis. He resigned from the presidency in May 1998 in the aftermath of the Reformasi movement and pass away on 27th January 2008. A GREAT POLITICAL LEADER I have chosen President Suharto as a great international political leader due to his capability in uniting the vast and diverse Indonesian population, his ability to develop the country from an impoverished state to almost a developed country, and his role in preventing the region from falling into communist rule. Suharto was even capable held sway over this multiethnic archipelago, as the President of such vast archipelago and diverse ethnic speaking people through guile, cunning, patronage, and some say, cruelty, from 1966 to 1998, leaving mixed emotions among Indonesia's 230 million people and a legacy of strong

anticommunism that had a major impact on the region and fostered close ties with the United States.
Thee Kian Wie, a historian said, He was 50 percent good and 5 percent bad.

Pointing to Suharto's economic achievements, some ordinary Indonesians said he built roads, schools, and health clinics in thousands of poor villages, and lifted millions of Indonesians out of poverty. "Life was better then, peaceful, easier to make a crust," said Sintha Wati, who sells goods alongside a fetid canal in Jakarta. Some others remember Suharto as a military-backed strongman who enriched his friends and family and left Indonesia in chaos amid the Asian financial crisis in 1998. Bembenk, a young clerk said, "Rice was cheap, streets were peaceful, but people were scared,". Even former victims have talked of forgiving Suharto, whom corruption watchdog Transparency International accuses of siphoning off $15 billion of state funds. A.M. Fatwa, an Islamic leader imprisoned under Suharto's government, told reporters, "As a man, I forgive him, but not his system of power." To the West and the United States, Suharto's fierce anticommunism policies made him a reliable ally during the period of communisms expansion in the SouthEast Asian region in the seventies. That led to Indonesia having close military ties with the US in the 1970s and 1980s. The US and Australian governments were aware of Suharto's plans to invade and occupy East Timor in 1975 with the US

breaking off ties with Indonesia after a massacre at a cemetery in East Timor in 1991. However, full military ties were restored in 2005. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono declared a week of mourning for Suharto ahead of a large state funeral upon his death. For weeks, former leaders such as Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore and Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia have lined up to pay respects. Economists credit Suharto with engineering an economic turnaround in the mid-1960s, which yielded an average annual economic growth of 7 percent until the mid-1990s by deploying a team of US-trained economists, the "Berkeley Mafia, to contain inflation which was running at more than 600 percent when he initially took over power from Sukarno. Mass poverty fell from 60 percent in 1966 to 15 percent in 1990 while Indonesia achieved self-sufficiency in rice production and achieved near-universal enrollment of primary school children. Life expectancy rose by some 20 percent from 1968 to 1990. According to Robert Elson, an Australian biographer of Suharto, "He was deeply involved in the creation of modern Indonesia ... but he was ruthless, and on occasion, murderous." Suharto's attitudes toward leadership, says Elson, were formed in a military career that included service under the colonial Dutch and Japanese armies. Suharto

organized militias, did intelligence work, and fought the Dutch in the war of independence from 1945-49. His rise to power was opaque, decisive, and bloody. He put down a botched revolt in 1965 by mid-level military officers he blamed on the Beijing-backed Communist Party, which then counted some 3 million members. It was crushed in reprisal attacks led by Army-assisted civilian militias. In crushing the revolt 300,000 and 1 million died in what the CIA called "one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century." Many more were jailed for years without trial and their families tainted by association. Ethnic Chinese also suffered as ties with Beijing were cut and Chinese-language materials were banned. After easing aside his predecessor, the left-leaning Sukarno, Suharto declared a "New Order" that demonized Communism. Within a few years, Indonesia rejoined the UN that Sukarno had exited in anger in 1965 and became a founding member of the anticommunist Association of Southeast Asian Nations. His reward was corporate investments and US military aid that became a bedrock of his government. Will history treat Suharto kindly? Many of his countrymen today do not. In 2007, students protested in Jakarta over the government's decision not to prosecute him for corruption, even as the former Indonesian president lay on his sickbed. Many abroad mention him in the same breath as Mobutu Sese Seko, another officer turned strongman, who plundered Zaire from the mid-1960s to the

late 1990s. Suharto is accused of similar avarice, and vastly inflated estimates of his family fortune are being tossed around. But the pendulum of condemnation has swung too far, and Suharto's death should be the impetus for a reappraisal. The vast and positive contributions of the man who made Indonesia a respected member of the international community deserve at least equal emphasis. One ought to consider that when Gen. Suharto came to power after a failed communist coup in 1965, Indonesia was an economic basket case and a troublemaker in the region with Sukarno having started the Konfrontasi with then Malaya. The pro-communist populism of President Sukarno had led the country down a dead end. When Suharto stepped forward from the shadows of Sukarno after the coup attempt in 1965, the son of a poor Javanese rice farmer, a career officer who spoke almost no English and had made only one short trip abroad surprisingly had much more sophisticated policies to turn around the country. President Suharto had something the egomaniacal Sukarno lacked: halus, a quality of calmness and refinement that Indonesians associate with royalty. Instead of seeking to be a leader of the Third World, Suharto invested in his own people. He used the income from oil exports to dramatically improve health and primary education. Women's participation in the workforce grew while life expectancy increased to over 70. According to one account, the honor he took the most pride in was an award for developing agriculture.

Economically, Suharto brought Indonesia up from the basket case when the country was under Sukarno, by initially entrusting economic policy to a group of neoclassical economists who became known as the "Berkeley mafia," since many were trained at the University of California. Fundamental policies of welcoming foreign investment and trade were set by them, which helped to sustain growth even when their influence waned and corruption grew. By the mid-1990s Indonesias economy was booming, and it seemed like only a matter of years before, like the tiger economies of East Asia, it would become a developed country. With investments flooding in and growth rates continually at a high, Indonesia appeared ready for economic liberalization. Meanwhile, through Suhartos leadership, Indonesia became an ally of the free world and a force for peace in the region. Communism was spreading down from China to the Indo-Chinese countries and many had predicted that all the other countries in South-East Asia would follow suit like a domino effect. However, with Suharto as President, his Foreign Minister Adam Malik was instrumental in the 1967 founding of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which was a bulwark against the spread of communism in the region. The Associations role gradually expanded to promoting trade and stability, and Indonesia remains the indispensable core of the expanded group. Had the left-leaning Sukarno still been the President at that time, the regions history might have changed and the current democraticallyelected governments of the regions states would not have seen the light of day as it would have been replaced by communist rule.

Suharto's biggest flaw was a virtue that he carried too far: loyalty to old friends and family. Unfortunately, as the nation became richer, some used their influence to pursue personal agendas that hurt the president and the country. By the 1990s, the ruling Golkar Party had become a cult of personality and a nascent civil society was nipped in the bud. The May 1997 elections were marred by violence as Suharto scrapped succession plans and sought a seventh five-year term in office. With investment flooding in and growth rates high, Indonesia appeared ready for the next jump to being declared a developed nation following the other tiger economies of East Asia. Yet regulatory institutions didn't keep up. A flood of new banks opened, but behind the scenes they were being used as private funding vehicles for their tycoon owners. Many businesses borrowed abroad in U.S. dollars. When the 1997 Asian financial crisis hit and confidence evaporated, this weak financial structure came tumbling down. Ironically, had Suharto stepped down just a couple of years earlier before the financial crisis, his image as modernizer or Bapak Pembangunan of Indonesia would be intact. Instead he has even been blamed for the ills brought on by the incompetence of his first three successors, President Habibie, President Abdurrahman Wahid and President Megawati Sukarnoputri. Today, after nearly a decade of political floundering, the country is once again on the rise under the leadership of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. This is not surprising since Susilos policies resembled those of the early Suharto years.

Casting aside Suhartos no-nonsense and autocratic style of running the country which undoubtedly is a basic requirement to rule over a country so vast as Indonesia consisting of approximately 17,508 islands with its inhabitants speaking 583 languages and dialects, Suhartos legacy could be accurately summarized as similar to that of Chinas Deng Xiaoping: he rescued his country from totalitarianism and poverty, and put it on the path to prosperity and a large measure of personal freedoms. For all his flaws, Suharto deserves to be remembered as one of Asia's greatest leaders. Asia-Pacific leaders recalled former Indonesian president Suharto's strengths, praising him after his death in Jakarta for modernizing his country and promoting regional unity -- despite a "less than desirable" human rights record. Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said Suharto played a critical role in building ASEAN, the 10-country bloc that has increased the region's influence in global politics. "As one of the founding fathers of ASEAN, President Suharto was among those who had the pioneering vision of establishing a more peaceful, progressive and prosperous Southeast Asian region founded on respect and understanding," Arroyo said in a statement from Dubai, where she was traveling. In her speech, Arroyo also highlighted Suhartos help in peaceful negotiation between the Philippine government and the Moro National Liberation Front, a Muslim rebel group in the volatile southern area of Mindanao.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd also said Suharto was influential in ASEAN's successful development, as well as that of APEC, a major international body that promotes world trade. Suharto "presided over the government of what are the world's fourth most populous country and its largest Islamic nation," Rudd said in a statement. "Until the catastrophic Asian financial crisis of 1997, he oversaw a period of significant economic growth and modernization at a time when Indonesia faced fundamental political, social and economic challenges," he said. Former Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer said that, despite a "less than desirable" human rights record, Suharto was instrumental in building ties between the two nations. "He was always very civil in my dealings with him and very responsive to building a relationship between Australia and Indonesia," Downer said. Former president Abdurrahman Wahid, who was democratically elected and held the nation's highest office from 1999-200, said, "Suharto made mistakes, but he also did a great service to the nation." Suharto is credited for rescuing the country and, by extension, greater Southeast Asia from chaos in the mid-1960s by establishing what the strident cold warrior himself called a "New Order." Its aim: build a modern, unified, anticommunist Indonesia. Its salient features included political repression of most

dissent, discrimination against the country's ethnic Chinese merchant-class, virulent nationalism and a strong military hand in politics. In all, Suharto served seven terms as president and remained Indonesia's supreme leader for more than 32 years before being forced to resign after mass street demonstrations engulfed the capital Jakarta amidst the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis. Suharto held together a fractious empire spanning three time zones, containing more than 17,000 islands and speaking hundreds of languages. He also took measures to ensure that the world's largest Muslim country by population remained secular. His ascent to the Presidency of Indonesia had in more ways than one, checked the spread of communism in the region and prevented the falling dominoes theory which was very real and imminent after the US pull out from Vietnam. Aptly called during his heydays as Bapak Pembangunan, Suharto promoted rapid development with new ports, roadways, mines and manufacturing zones that by 1990 had turned the impoverished nation into a budding "tiger" economy. Until its weak financial structures were exposed by the financial crisis, Indonesia's growth model was hailed as a blueprint for the rest of the developing world. The International Monetary Fund in 1996 included Indonesia in its list of top 10 emerging economies, lauding its 8 percent annual growth. Poverty in Indonesia fell from 60 percent in 1966 when Suharto took over power from Sukarno, to a mere 15 percent only in 1990. The country achieved self-

sufficiency in rice production and achieved near-universal enrollment of primary school children. Life expectancy, according to demographers, rose by some 20 percent from 1968 to 1990. Notwithstanding his weaknesses, 27th January 2008 should be remembered as the day that saw the passing of a great international political leader who during his reign as President of Indonesia, had such a big impact and influence on the lives of not only Indonesians but that of South-East Asians and the world.