Indonesian activists oppose national hero title for ex-dictator

In this photograph taken on March 9, 2014, a poster bearing the portrait of the late Indonesian dictator Suharto with a slogan “How are you bro? Still better in my time, no?” is displayed in Karanganyar town in central Java island. AFP FILE PHOTO

Human rights activists in Indonesia are opposed to naming late dictator Soeharto a national hero and have urged the government to reject the idea, given the late president’s track record of alleged human rights abuses and corruption.

Maria Catarina Sumarsih, 64, a human rights activist whose son Bernardus Realino Norma Irawan died in the first Semanggi tragedy in 1998, said there would be more losses than benefits for the country in naming Soeharto a national hero.

By doing so, the current government would endorse the military authoritarianism that Soeharto upheld during his administration, which resulted in violence and led to the disappearance and death of many victims, Sumarsih said.

She urged President Joko “Jokowi” Widowo to firmly reject the notion.

“I don’t accept if an actor in my son’s murder is given a hero title. He [Soeharto] was involved in several human rights abuse cases and my son was one of the victims,” she said during a press conference at the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence ( Kontras ) on Tuesday (May 24).

Soeharto, who was in power for 32 years, and his cronies turned a blind eye to cases of human rights violations, said Kontras activist Feri Kusuma.

“He contributed to the development [of the country], but all of his actions that violated the law smeared the merit [of his achievements],” Feri said, adding that giving such a title to Soeharto would discredit existing national heroes who had made worthy contributions to the nation.

Army general Soeharto was allegedly involved in several human rights abuses such as the Tanjung Priok massacre in early 1984, the 1989 Talangsari incident in Lampung, as well as the May 1998 riots between citizens and the military that resulted in many deaths and injuries.

Soeharto ordered a serious of mysterious shootings between 1982 and 1985, known as Petrus, which reportedly killed about 2,000 people across the country, with the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police deemed responsible for the killings, according to reports by the National Commission on Human Rights ( Komnas HAM ) in 2012.

Despite mounting calls to put Soeharto on trial after the 1998 Reform Era, charges implicating the former president remained unsolved until his death in 2008.

Former Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie announced the party’s plan to propose Soeharto’s nomination as a national hero during an extraordinary national meeting of the country’s oldest political party in Bali last week.

The idea of giving the title to Soeharto also arose in 2010 when his name appeared on a list of national hero nominees from Central Java, selected by the Social Affairs Ministry.

Kontras’ impunity watch and fulfilment of victims’ rights division head Yanti Andriani said the organisation had sent a letter to the government calling for it to cancel the nomination.

However, as officials had not responded to the letter, Kontras assumed they were waiting for the right time to name Soeharto a national hero as in accordance with their original plan, Yanti said.

Kontras intends to send another letter to the government and to Golkar this week to continue urging parties that support Soeharto’s nomination to carefully consider past human rights abuses and the ongoing effects of such crimes.

“If [Soeharto] is named a hero, it’s the same as the supporters wanting to betray the ambitions of reform,” Yanti said.

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