Indonesia’s President Declares Late Dictator Soeharto a ‘National Hero’
Whitewashing History Undermines Efforts to Bring Justice for Victims
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto declared 10 people “national heroes” on November 10, which Indonesia celebrates as Heroes Day. Among them was the late President Soeharto, who ruled Indonesia from 1965 to 1998.
More than 80 public figures, including historians, have written a letter protesting the “hero” title for Soeharto, who presided over three decades of military dictatorship and systematic human rights violations.
Soeharto’s rule included media censorship, tight restrictions on freedom of association and assembly, a highly politicized and controlled judiciary, widespread torture, attacks on the rights of minorities, massacres of alleged communists, and numerous war crimes committed in East Timor, Aceh, West Papua, and the Moluccan islands. He also led a notoriously corrupt regime in which he, family members, and cronies amassed billions of dollars in ill-gotten wealth; funds that could have addressed Indonesia’s widespread poverty and social problems.
Seeing how Soeharto (A dictator leader who were responsible in tragic massacre cases in Indonesia and Timor Timur) have people on Tiktok making misleading content denying the massacre along with everything that he did.
I hope in the future I don't see the next generation make the same misleading content, to denied the genocide that is happening in Palestine and misleading other to think Netanhayu is the "good guy". (Or any other tragedy and genocides)
I NEED YOU TO SWEAR TO NOT LET THIS HAPPENS 🫠🫠🫠🫠
I think we need to realise how social media (esp, Tiktok) is being used to denied and rewrite history right now. I believe this is the same tactic in Phillipines with Bongbong Marcos CMIIW.
I believe this will not stop in just Soeharto and my country. I am more afraid of the future especially with Ai now, how much of the history will be re-written and be denied. I'm saying this to myself too, This is why speaking up is important and even if no one listens. Your voices still matter and if you did speak up I see you, you did great.
How Soeharto’s political moves undercut his own beliefs and Indonesia’s political freedom.
If you drive from Cilacap, a port and trading city on the southern coast of Java Island, and head east for 45 minutes, you may spot a sign pointing to Gunung Srandil. The mountain’s name is a combination of the Javanese words “sranane” (must be) and “adil” (just).
Mount Srandil is no ordinary hill with a view of the Indian Ocean. It is also an ancient mystical complex that houses multiple shrines dedicated to Javanese saints and Hindu gods and goddesses, as well as a Buddhist temple and an Islamic mosque.
I visited the compound on a very dark evening in October 2021, with a Javanese guru accompanying me with his flashlight as well as incense and flowers.
His name is Mbah Salio, a caretaker at Mount Srandil.
Mbah Salio told me that the compound is legally the property of the Central Java army command. A notice board says the area is under the supervision of the command’s detachment on arts and property.
“President Soeharto used to be the commander,” he said.
“He often came here to meditate, not only during his [military] service, but also during his presidency.”
We walked around the vast compound, peering into each shrine.
Mbah Salio even urged me to drive to a more remote shrine. Through the dark forest, about 30 minutes from the compound, we reached the Pertapaan Cemara Putih (White Pine Hermitage) in Mount Selok. My car was the only vehicle on that village road.
Mbah Salio asked a guard, who lives nearby, for a key to open the shrine.
Inside the shrine were three cemeteries and a huge painting of the Queen of the South Coast – popularly known as the mystical goddess Nyi Roro Kidul. Mbah Salio lit incense again, saying a prayer in Javanese amid the dead quiet.
He asked me to make a wish.
I said, “Religious freedom and belief in Indonesia.”
He returned to his prayer.
We later drank tea and smoked cigarettes in the guard’s post.
“President Soeharto, when he was still in power, used to have a helipad there,” Mbah Salio said, pointing to an open field. A Buddhist temple stands near the former helipad.
Mbah Salio said he met Soeharto there when he was younger.
I asked him how he would describe Soeharto’s beliefs.
“He’s a Kejawen but he’s also a Muslim, like me,” he said. “I am a member of the Nadhlatul Ulama. I am a card-carrying member.”
Young Soeharto’s Spiritualism
Soeharto was indeed a Kejawen; a practitioner of the Javanese folk religion that marries animism, Buddhist, and Hindu traditions. Though Islam has become the dominant religion on the island since it arrived in the 1500s, traces of Kejawen are still commonly found in the beliefs and practices of modern-day Javanese Muslims.
In 1935, when he was 14 years old, Soeharto moved to Wonogiri, an agricultural town in Central Java, and got to know Romo Daryatmo, a Javanese mystic and faith healer, through his new foster father.
In Wonogiri, a young Soeharto not only enjoyed agricultural life – bathing water buffalos and working on rice fields – but also learned about Daryatmo’s spiritual life.
Daryatmo was a nominal Muslim. He knew the Koran, but more in a Javanese sense than in a conventional Islamic one. As a Kejawen practitioner, he would recite Islamic phrases but did so mostly in Javanese.
Many people in Wonogiri viewed Daryatmo as a man who had mastered arcane disciplines to establish a harmonious relationship with God and someone who was able to draw from his spiritual powers to cure the sick.
Soeharto also found in Daryatmo a missing father figure. He soon became Daryatmo’s disciple, moving into the guru’s house, where he worked as a part-time assistant, preparing his morning coffee and assisting him in writing prescriptions for herbal medication. It was a formative period that gave Soeharto valuable insight into Javanese philosophy and shaped his world view.
David Jenkins’ new book, Young Soeharto: The Making of a Soldier, 1921-1945, delves into the early life of Indonesia’s authoritarian ruler, who stayed in power for 33 years, also arguably the strongest. What emerges from the details is the story of the man who was not just a Muslim but also an ardent adherent to Kejawen in a country that has become increasingly Islamized over the last three centuries.
In his 1989 autobiography, Soeharto: My Thoughts, Words, and Deeds, written by G. Dwipayana and Ramadhan K.H, Soeharto refers to Daryatmo as a kiai, an old Javanese word for a spiritual man. When Soeharto was in power, between 1965 and 1998, he called Daryatmo at least once a week and practiced Kejawen himself.
Jenkins’ book is essential because it details Soeharto’s Kejawen upbringing and his Japanese military training during their occupation on Indonesia from 1942 to 1945.
Major General Soeharto rose to power in 1965 during a period of mass killings by the military, paramilitary groups, and Muslim militias. US diplomatic cables from Jakarta documented tens of thousands of killings of suspected Communist Party members, ethnic Chinese, as well as trade unionists, teachers, activists, and artists. Soeharto ruled Indonesia with the military’s backing, repressing opponents, seizing naturally rich lands, and abusing people’s rights.
In 1975, when President Soeharto was considering an invasion of Portuguese Timor, he flew from Jakarta to the Dieng Plateau, another mystical site for ancient Javanese rituals. He brought his guest, Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, to a secret cave where Soeharto sought to receive spiritual wisdom. He decided to invade Portuguese Timor after receiving support from Whitlam, as well as US President Gerald Ford, who he met in Jakarta. The invasion had well-known, tragic human rights consequences for the Timorese people.
Giving in to Islamists
David Jenkins’ book also reveals an important aspect of Soeharto’s view of Islamists. During the 1977 general election, President Soeharto held a meeting with several Catholic leaders, including Ignatius Joseph Kasimo and Frans Seda. Even before they were seated, Soeharto reportedly told the men, “Our common enemy is Islam.”
Soeharto was clearly determined to curb the power of Indonesia’s Islamists. In 1978, he created a directorate within the Ministry of Education to service traditional religions, including Kejawen, telling the Indonesian parliament, “These beliefs are part of our national tradition, and need not to be opposed to [established] religions.”
It was a clever move against the discriminatory regulations against religious minorities that were in place when Soeharto took power. Going back to January 1946, Indonesia had established the Ministry of Religious Affairs, a government body that facilitated discrimination against religious minorities and refused to recognize or serve the country’s traditional, local religions like Kejawen. The ministry produced a narrow definition of religions in 1952, favoring only monotheistic religions including Islam and Christianity, and drafted the 1965 blasphemy law, which has been repeatedly used with deleterious effects against followers of local religions.
Soeharto did not push the Ministry of Religious Affairs to serve local religions like Kejawen, but instead put the mandate under the Ministry of Education, changing its name to the Ministry of Education and Culture.
He supported his education minister, Daoed Joesoef, himself a devout Muslim, to issue a regulation on state school uniforms that banned the jilbab, the Indonesian name for the head, neck, and chest covering worn by women and girls to promote Islamic beliefs.
Significant tensions arose between Soeharto and the military in 1988 after a close aide, General Benny Moerdani, himself a Catholic, advised Soeharto to differentiate between his official duty and his children’s business interests, which were widely alleged to be connected to corruption. Soeharto recognized that maintaining his grip on power would require eliciting support from other, opposing groups, especially the Islamists.
So in 1991, Soeharto reversed his approach toward them. He made a pilgrimage to Mecca, promoted his Islamic credentials, embraced political Islam, and extended his support for the Indonesian Association of Muslim Intellectuals, where many Islamists channel their political aspirations. The Ministry of Education and Culture issued new guidelines on school uniforms that allowed “special clothing,” which gave birth to policies allowing state schools to allow their female teachers and students to wear the jilbab.
This was the beginning of the slippery slope towards greater introduction of the Islamization in Indonesia, all for the sake of Soeharto’s continued political power. But even that power was not to last.
In 1998, after more than three decades in power, Soeharto was forced to step down in the face of massive public protests at the height of the Asian economic crisis.
The reversal of Soeharto’s efforts to support religious freedom reopened the door to establishing Sharia, or Islamic law, which was previously frowned upon under his administration. This prompted Muslim politicians in predominantly Muslim provinces to draft ordinances that reflected “Islamic values.”
“What kind of Islam is this?”
When Soeharto’s wife, Siti Hartinah, died in April 1996, the Soehartos organized the funeral like a Kejawen family. Her body was placed inside a coffin – not wrapped in white muslin in accordance with Islamic rites. There was no imam reciting the Islamic confession of faith into the ear of the deceased.
Then-Vice President B.J. Habibie visited the house with his wife and two sons. At one stage, Habibie’s 32-year-old elder son, Ilham Akbar Habibie, remarked, just a little too loudly, “What kind of Islam is this?”
On things that mattered most, Soeharto revealed that spiritually he was really a Kejawen believer, in line with the teachings of Daryatmo, who had inspired him as a youth. But his use of his Islamic credentials to maintain power backfired on him – and on Indonesia.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who ruled between 2004 and 2014, accommodated the demands to promote Islamic Sharia. His administration strengthened the blasphemy law, leading to the prosecution and imprisonment of 125 people in a decade – a steep rise from only eight cases in the three decades during Soeharto’s rule.
The blasphemy law recognizes only six religions in Indonesia: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. Under the Yudhoyono administration, the blasphemy law was also expanded to discriminate against smaller non-Sunni Islamic minorities, such as the Ahmadiyah and Shia sects.
The blasphemy law became a political weapon to mobilize Muslims against adherents of other religions. The prime example was the move to unseat Jakarta Governor Basuki Purnama, a Christian, who lost the 2017 local election after 500,000 Muslim protesters mobilized to demand that he should be prosecuted for defaming Islam in a public speech. Purnama also lost his freedom, ending up in prison for two years on bogus charges.
So Soeharto, a true Kejawen believer, who often visited Javanese shrines like Mount Srandil and Dieng Plateau, failed to use his perspective, knowledge, and power to promote religious freedom and belief in Indonesia. Indonesia is far worse off today because of the path Soeharto took to employ Islam to bolster his political power, and followers of local religions like Kejawen face a grave reckoning.
Mbah Salio nodded, repeatedly, when I wished for religious freedom and belief in Indonesia.
“That is also my prayer,” he whispered.
Andreas Harsono is a researcher for Human Rights Watch.
DOSA-DOSA SOEHARTO DAN ORDE BARU MENURUT PRAMOEDYA ANANTA TOER
Pram berkisah betapa menderitanya ia saat buku-bukunya dibakar oleh rezim orde baru.
JAKARTA, Indonesia—Soeharto dan Pramoedya Ananta Toer datang dari generasi yang sama. Keduanya juga sama-sama pernah mengabdi pada militer. Soeharto menjadi anggota Tentara Nasional Indonesia sejak 5 Oktober 1945 setelah tamat dari Sekolah Bintara, Gombong, Jawa Tengah.
Sedangkan Pram - sapaan Pramoedya- hanya sempat mengikuti kelompok militer di Pulau Jawa. Ia pernah ditugaskan di Jakarta tapi akhirnya ia memutuskan untuk keluar dan menulis saja. Pram kemudian bergabung dengan Lekra, kelompok penulis sayap kiri.
Setelah itu, keduanya menjalani takdirnya masing-masing. Soeharto berhasil meniti karir menjadi anggota militer. Kelak ia berhasil menduduki posisi nomor satu di TNI.
Sedangkan Pram akhirnya menjadi seorang penulis yang menginspirasi banyak orang lewat novelnya yang berjudul Bumi Manusia, Nyanyian Sunyi Seorang Bisu. Begitu pula dengan karyanya yang lain. Nama Pram bahkan dikenal hingga ke luar negeri.
Meski demikian, seumur hidup, keduanya ditakdirkan untuk selalu berhadap-hadapan. Seoharto menjadi penguasa dan Pram menjadi kritikusnya. Kritikus paling tajam. Pram akhirnya dipenjara dan melakukan kerja paksa di Pulau Buru saat Soeharto berkuasa.
Di sela-sela kritik umumnya, Pram selalu dipancing untuk berkomentar tentang Soeharto. Ia pun mengungkapkan pendapatnya tentang penguasa orde baru itu.
Kritikannya itu muncul ketika ditanya soal Soeharto dan Orde Baru. Jawaban Pram selalu keras.
Seperti saat membalas Goenawan Muhamad soal permintaan maaf negara pada orang-orang yang ditahan seperti Pram. Pram pun menjawab Goenawan.
Dalam jawaban itu tergambar bagaimana Pram menilai bahwa Soeharto telah menyengsarakan hidupnya. Mulai dari penjara, pelarangan buku, sampai teror bahkan setelah dia dibebaskan oleh pemerintah orde baru.
“Saya tidak mudah memaafkan orang karena sudah terlampau pahit menjadi orang Indonesia. Buku-buku saya menjadi bacaan wajib di sekolah-sekolah lanjutan di Amerika, tapi di Indonesia dilarang.”
"Hak saya sebagai pengarang selama 43 tahun dirampas habis. Saya menghabiskan hampir separuh usia saya di Pulau Buru dengan siksaan, penghinaan, dan penganiayaan.”
“Keluarga saya mengalami penderitaan yang luar biasa. Salah satu anak saya pernah melerai perkelahian di sekolah, tapi ketika tahu bapaknya tapol justru dikeroyok. Istri saya berjualan untuk bertahan hidup, tapi selalu direcoki setelah tahu saya tapol. Bahkan sampai ketua RT tidak mau membuatkan KTP (Kartu Tanda Penduduk).”
“Rumah saya di Rawamangun Utara dirampas dan diduduki militer, sampai sekarang. Buku dan naskah karya-karya saya dibakar.”
“Basa-basi baik saja, tapi hanya basa-basi. Selanjutnya mau apa? Maukah negara mengganti kerugian orang-orang seperti saya? Negara mungkin harus berhutang lagi untuk menebus mengganti semua yang saya miliki.”
Di artikel lainnya di Indoprogress yang ditulis Linda Christanty juga dituturkan Pram yang menyamakan Soeharto dengan KNIL (Tentara Kerajaan Hindia Belanda).
"Nasution (Jenderal Abdul Haris Nasution yang dianugerahi bintang lima di masa Soeharto) telah membunuh teman saya, membuat teman saya mati. Waktu itu kami sedang mempertahankan Bekasi, tepatnya di daerah Lemah Abang. Nasution dan Soeharto itu sama saja, sama-sama KNIL,” tuturnya.
Permusuhan Pram pada kesewenangan Soeharto di era orde baru semakin jelas saat Kees Snoek yang diutus oleh kementerian pendidikan dan ilmu pengetahuan Belanda mewawancarainya.
Wawancara itu kemudian dibukukan dan diterbitkan oleh Komunitas Bambu berjudul Saya Ingin Lihat Ini Berakhir.
Saat ditanya Snoek tentang karya-karyanya, Pram berbicara lebih bebas tentang kekesalannya saat naskah-naskahnya diburu oleh orde baru.
Ia bercerita bahwa ia sebisa mungkin menyelamatkan karya-karyanya. Terutama karyanya yang ia hasilkan saat ditahan di Pulau Buru oleh rezim Soeharto.
“Hampir semua yang saya tulis di Pulau Buru harus saya alihkan kepada pihak yang lain kecuali catatan-catatan buku harian saya. Semua disita,” katanya.
Beruntung Pram sempat membuat 4 salinan, salah satu salinannya diselamatkan oleh Gereja Katolik. Ia berhasil mengelabui Soeharto. “Orde baru berpikir bahwa masalah selesai ketika naskah asli itu disita. Tentu saja itu keliru." Pram melawan.
Puncaknya Pram dengan terang menyatakan kebenciaannya terhadap orde baru, tepatnya saat ditanya pemikiran politiknya. “Saya merasa di titik dasar kehinaan di Indonesia pada masa orde baru.”
Penghinaan itu melekat pada Pram seumur hidupnya. Bahkan saat Soeharto sudah lengser pun, Pram masih skeptis bahwa pemerintah sudah terbebas dari cengkeraman orde baru.
Dalam sebuah artikel berjudul Soeharto Tidak Mungkin Diadili di Jawa Pos, Senin, 12 April 1999, Pram blak-blakan soal nasibnya di orde baru. Pram mengungkapnya saat ceramah di depan mahasiswa dan pers Amerika serta pemerhati sastra dan politik di kampus George Washington University (GWU).
Menurut Pram, Soeharto adalah penjahat dunia dan layak dituntut. Itu berdasarkan pengalaman pribadinya yang ditahan sepuluh tahun di Pulau Buru, disiksa, dianiaya tanpa proses pengadilan atau hukum.
"Berdasarkan pengalaman saya sendiri, Soeharto adalah penjahat kemanusiaan. Setiap orang di mana pun di seluruh dunia berhak menuntut Soeharto."
Di wawancara itu, Pram juga mengungkap fitnah orde baru padanya, bahwa ia adalah orang Partai Komunis Indonesia.
''Yang mengangkat saya menjadi PKI itu kan Orba, yang kemudian dikembangkan oleh pers Orba. Saya ini PKI nomor berapa? Hanya Orba saja yang bikin-bikin itu, yang lalu dikembangkan pers Orba. Saya justru pernah menanyakan, saya ini komunis nomor berapa sih? Kan komunis semua mempunyai tanda keanggotaan. Tidak ada yang pernah bisa menjawab,” kata Pram.
Setelah bertahun-tahun ‘berseteru’ karena ideologi dan keyakinan tentang Indonesia, Pram dan Soeharto akhirnya dijemput ajal. Pram menghembuskan nafas terakhir pada 30 April 2006 di umur 81 tahun. Sedangkan Soeharto wafat pada 27 Janiari 2008 di usia 86 tahun.
Hingga ajal menjemput pun, Pram tak pernah memperoleh permintaan maaf dari Soeharto atas penderitaan yang ia jalani di tahanan Pulau Buru. Sementara itu, Soeharto tetap dikenang dan bahkan dijuluki sebagai bapak pembangunan, bukan bapak kejahatan manusia seperti yang diangankan oleh Pram.
Tapi perjuangannya untuk meminta orde baru dan pemerintah selanjutnya tak pernah padam. Hingga akhir umurnya, ia tetap menyindir penguasa. Paling tidak hanya untuk memenuhi perkataannya sendiri, bahwa “Dalam hidup kita, cuma satu yang kita punya, yaitu keberanian. Kalau tidak punya itu, lantas apa harga hidup kita ini?” —Rappler.com
