Post-Soeharto Note: Indonesia Needs To Move On

Indonesia’s great Father of Development, former President Soeharto has finally passed away on Sunday noon. He succumbed to multiple organ failures at the age of 86 and will be finally rested on a family mausoleum in Solo, Central Java. His death has obviously led to many debates on whether Indonesian should remember him for all his magnificent achievements and forgive him for some of his misconducts during his 32 year rule, or should further legal charges continue.

If a recent poll by Kompas is any indication, the Indonesian public themselves seems to be split on the issue. It was noted that around 66% of the public felt that Indonesians should forgive Soeharto because of his achievements in acquiring domestic stability and alleviating poverty while fixing the economy. However, when asked whether the civil suit should continue, 61 % agrees that it should. Interestingly, there is a generational gap here. Out of those 815 people polled, those who are more sympathetic to Soeharto were those above the age of 35 and have a lower education level. Those between the age of 17 and 30 and has a higher education are more likely willing to see the legal proceedings to continue.

Pros and cons are all out there arguing how we should remember Soeharto, how would we honor his legacies, should he be absolve of his misdeeds, and so on. That being said, we should not simply forgive and forget a man of his stature because whether we like it or not, Indonesia today is shaped by his policies for the past three decades. His achievements and misconducts aside, let history record them for what they are and let future generations judge his contributions to the nation. However, this debate should not distract our attention from the bigger problems facing Indonesia today.

There are more important issues that we need to address rather than focusing all our energy and time to solve his legal case for example. Many have seen this as an exercise in vanity, especially when we consider that even during the height of the reform movement, the case was shelved. Therefore, we should not let these debates cloud us from the real important issues facing Indonesians across the archipelago. According to the Bureau of Central of Statistics, from March 2006 until March 2007, the poverty rate only dropped 0.17%, leaving Indonesia with around 39 million impoverished people today.

Recent price hikes in daily food supplies have also made things worse. Those from the middle to lower class could not even afford the traditional tempeh now due to the rise in soya bean prices. Teachers from across the country continue to organize demonstrations as they remain underpaid while being asked to improve their education as they need to be recertified. In this regard, the government cannot even fulfill the constitutional requirement of providing 20% of the national budget for education. The Indonesian military remains under-funded, despite of the recent increase in defense budget up to around US$ 3.6 billion. Fundamental military reforms including the territorial command structure, military business regulations, military tribunal laws and even doctrinal and strategic defense review remains unresolved.

All the while, political elites continue to maneuvre their way into the legislative and presidential election in 2009. Even worse, earlier this year, the parliament approved an additional IDR 39 million cash incentives to MPs, although several factions have expressed their rejection. All of these issues highlight perhaps a fraction of the challenges that Indonesia needs to deal with. Education, poverty alleviation, judicial reforms, and the list goes on. Another trend seems to be the increasing gap between the political elite and common people – as the cash incentives for MPs have shown us.

The government on the other hand should also be more decisive. The lingering and perhaps indecisive stance of the President and his cabinet regarding Soeharto has to some extent allow the national debate to continue. Nevertheless, as Indonesians, we were always taught that one of the best ways to honor our national heroes is to keep the flame alive and build this country.

Today, with increasingly more people living below poverty line as prices continues to rise, there is no better time than to move on and debate more crucial issues mentioned before. Although this is a critical year in Indonesian politics as general elections are getting closer, we should not simply let it be another year in waiting. A year where ordinary Indonesians are still waiting for the administration to fulfill their campaign promises. This should be a year of action for the government as well and not simply waiting for who they could bring in to support their election strategy.

Finally, if anybody asks how Indonesians should honor a fallen president, the answer is: we should move on and try to solve all these real issues that affect many Indonesians.

Evan A. Laksmana is Research Analyst at the Indonesia Programme, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Image taken from Indonesia-1.

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