For decades, he was a feared US-backed dictator whose regime oversaw bloody Cold War-era massacres, accused of diverting huge amounts of state money to propel his family into luxury and political power.
On Monday, he was posthumously named a national hero of Indonesia – prompting protests from human rights groups and victims who decried the award as whitewashing a repressive regime that left hundreds of thousands dead, according to historians.
Former President Suharto was granted the title in a ceremony by Indonesia’s current leader, Prabowo Subianto – Suharto’s former son-in-law, himself a divisive figure as a former general who faced his own allegations of human rights abuses while in uniform.
“A prominent figure from Central Java province, a hero of the struggle for independence, General Suharto stood out since the independence era,” an announcer said during the award presentation,
But as the roiling controversy shows, that characterization is hotly debated – and Suharto’s legacy is anything but straightforward.
Who was Suharto?
Born in 1921 when Indonesia was still a Dutch colony, Suharto rose to power after the country gained independence in 1949, climbing the army ranks to become a five-star general.
Then came a bloodbath in 1965, sparked by a failed coup and the murder of a number of generals in the military.
Suharto blamed the coup on communists, ousted then-President Sukarno – the country’s first post-independence leader – and sanctioned a hunt for those responsible.
What ensued was a nationwide purge of alleged communists overseen by Suharto’s powerful military, with human rights groups and historians estimating that between 500,000 to one million people were killed.
The United States supported the anti-communist massacres, providing lists of senior communist party officials, equipment and money to the Indonesian army, according to official documents that were 2017
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