Thousands of people attended prayers to celebrate what would have been the 92nd birthday of the late Indonesian President Suharto in Solo, Central Java

June 10, 2013 Leave a comment

Suharto’s Birthday Keeps Discussion Alive

By Imron Rosyid Taufikur on 11:36 pm June 9, 2013.

SAN7046-1024x695

A guide gives a tour around Suharto’s memorial park in Bantul, Yogyakarta, which was unveiled on Saturday. (JG Photo/Aiera Maharani)

Thousands of people attended prayers to celebrate what would have been the 92nd birthday of the late President Suharto in Solo, Central Java, on Saturday.The event was attended by Suharto’s children along with influential figures including Aburizal Bakrie, the chairman of the Golkar Party, of which Suharto was a part, Aburizal’s predecessor Akbar Tanjung, People’s Conscience Party (Hanura) chairman Wiranto, former Army chief Gen. Subagyo H.S. and former finance minister Fuad Bawazier.

To commemorate Suharto’s birthday, his half brother, businessman Probosutedjo, built a memorial park in the Yogyakarta district of Bantul featuring Suharto’s statue on a 3,620 meter plot of land.

“A big nation is one that honors its heroes. We must never forget the national service heroes have done for the country,” Suharto’s eldest daughter Siti Hardijanti Rukmana said during the inauguration of the memorial park on Saturday.

Posters and stickers featuring a smiling Suharto and reading “Wasn’t it good during my time?” have become commonplace in Central Java recently.

But Winarso, coordinator of a group for victims of the Suharto regime, warned of the need to be careful about wishing for a return to Suharto’s methods.

“This phenomenon shows that the cronies of the New Order have completed their consolidation,” Winarso said on Saturday.

Winarso said people close to Suharto’s New Order regime had been hiding and claimed to be the supporters of reform when in fact they were watching political developments with suspicion. “Now they have come out as Suharto’s admirers,” Winarso said.

He added that Suharto’s supporters had been seeking to attract contemporary support for Suharto, who died in 2008, aged 86. “It’s not surprising to see the T-shirts and stickers bearing Suharto’s picture emerging, especially in Solo and Yogyakarta,” he said.

“They are a threat, especially for millions of families of victims of the New Order.” He added that Suharto’s regime had murdered many people accused of being supporters of the disbanded Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), without even a court trial.

Former Constitutional Court chief justice Mahfud M.D., a potential 2014 presidential contender, said Suharto, like any person, had both good and bad sides.

He said Indonesians should focus on the positive things he had done for the country, such as strong government and clear political direction. Mahfud said Suharto’s leadership was badly needed from 1965 to 1967, when he assumed power.

“In terms of his weaknesses, he created a system that provided room for corruption, collusion, and nepotism [KKN] practices. That’s undeniable,” Mahfud said on Friday.

He said that Suharto in 1978 started to facilitate KKN, which went on to account for 30 percent of the state budget and continued until he was forced from office 20 years later.

“We cannot label our leaders as being all bad, so I agree with the commemoration,” he said of Suharto’s birthday commemoration.

Filed under Life, Macro Trends

Unknown's avatarAbout bambooinnovator
Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

Leave a comment