At Suharto's deathbed, the
strongmen wept By Yang Razali
Kassi
SINGAPORE - The passing on Sunday of
former Indonesian president Suharto brings to a
close an important chapter of the founding
generation of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN). The successor generation now
faces the challenge of carrying forth their
leadership legacies amid changing popular
expectations.
Singapore's Minister Mentor
Lee Kuan Yew flew to Jakarta to visit the ailing
86-year-old Suharto, who the senior statesman
clearly held in high esteem and fondly remembered
as a close friend. Another aging ASEAN stalwart,
former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad,
also made a deathbed visit.
Lee, 84, and
Mahathir, 82, paid what they knew would be their
final respects to a former
comrade-in-power, in a moment pregnant with
symbolism as the curtain was drawing on a key
regional actor. The death of Suharto, the most
senior of the three ASEAN octogenarians, marks the
beginning of the end of a defining generation of
regional leaders.
Together, the three
former heads of government, all influenced by
formative experiences during the World War II
Japanese occupation and post-war quest for
independence, dominated the regional stage for so
long that they not only laid the groundwork for
ASEAN's extraordinary economic transformation but
also played a major - if also controversial - part
in shaping the region's enduring political ethos.
That included long tenures in power, with Mahathir
ruling for 22 years (1981 to 2003), Lee for 39
years (1959-1990) and Suharto for 32 years (1966
to 1988).
To be sure, Suharto's final
hours were as divisive as his last years in power,
which culminated in his street protest-driven
downfall in 1998. Many Indonesians respected him
for economically developing the country, while
others who suffered under his strong-armed rule
and accused him of plunder and rights abuses were
disappointed he was never brought to trial.
It should as such come as no surprise that
Lee and Mahathir had developed a certain bond with
Suharto. The manner in which Suharto was
criticized by many Indonesians must have saddened,
if not frightened, the two regional strongman
figures. The senior Lee's eyes were reportedly
moist when he spoke to the Singapore media about
Suharto's passing. He said Suharto had not been
given the recognition he deserved and expressed
regret that the younger generation had been too
harsh in condemning the man - popularly known as
"Pak Harto" to his countrymen - who on balance had
brought far more good than harm to the country.
Lee's stark comparison of Suharto to
Myanmar's former strongman Ne Win argued that if
the Indonesian strongman had followed Myanmar's
ill-fated road to socialism in the 1960s,
Indonesia could have ended up in the same economic
mire, ASEAN would never have come into existence,
and Southeast Asia might have ended up in an
economic and political mess, if not a war zone.
Mahathir was less open with his thoughts
of the strongman's legacy. According to Suharto's
daughter, Mahathir and Suharto, during the rare
period when the former Indonesian president was
conscious on his deathbed, shed tears together.
Yes, strong men do cry - even those who were once
in power and feared because of it.
It is
widely accepted that the three leaders' dominant
characteristic was strong leadership. Their drive
to develop their respective countries and bring
more food to the tables of their respective
peoples often came at the expense of civil
liberties, which they often argued was a necessary
sacrifice. But unlike Lee and Mahathir, the price
Suharto paid was a comparatively heavy one.
The repression of the Suharto years and
the enduring corruption proved to be politically
fatal for the retired general, who came to power
against the backdrop of an anti-communist coup in
1966. He was ousted in 1998 under similar
circumstances - the result of a people's reformasi
uprising triggered by the 1997-98 Asian financial
crisis.
One little known fact is how the
financial crisis brought Mahathir and Suharto
closer together. It also caused a rift between
Mahathir in his final years as prime minister, and
his deputy Anwar Ibrahim. Suspicious that Anwar
was trying to play out the Indonesian uprising
scenario in Malaysia to oust him, Mahathir shocked
the world when he launched a counter-strike that
expelled and eventually jailed his deputy and
anointed successor, in what many still believe was
a political conspiracy.
The sacking of
Anwar, who once referred to Suharto as
ayahanda, using the most reverential form
for "father" in the Malay language, eventuated in
the rise of current Malaysian Prime Minister
Abdullah Badawi as Mahathir's successor. His
emergence belatedly coincided with the rise in
Indonesia of a series of post-Suharto leaders,
including the democratic election in 2004 of
incumbent president Bambang Susilo Yudhoyono and
the rise of Lee's son, Lee Hsien Loong, in
Singapore.
They form a new generation of
leaders. This new cohort represents a new
generation of leaders which must simultaneously
carry on the legacies of their towering
predecessors while meeting the demands of a new
generation of more economically empowered
populations, who clearly will not unquestioningly
accept the old style of heavy-handed leadership.
It is a generation that wants more freedom
and political space to do things they regard to be
within their rights as citizens. This transition
towards a new ASEAN represents a major challenge
to the region's new generation of leaders and
already there is evidence of mixed results. This
is also reflected in the new ASEAN Charter, in
which new human rights provisions reflect the
changing values of the regional organization.
The Suharto generation of leaders, for all
their strengths and weaknesses, is now passing
from the scene. It is understandable to heap
praise for the good that they have done, and to
feel aggrieved by the impact of their foibles. But
the younger generation of ASEAN citizens should
maintain a sense of balance and be guided by their
Asian values by honoring elders who have done
good, even while remembering the pain of their
mistakes. Pak Harto, for one, deserves such a send
off.
Yang Razali Kassim
(isyangrazali@ntu.edu.sg) is a senior
fellow with the S Rajaratnam School of
International Studies, Nanyang Technological
University in Singapore. He is also author of
Transition Politics: Dynamics of Leadership Change
and Succession in Indonesian and Malaysia. This
version of the article first published on January
27 was edited by Asia Times Online.
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