Word: suharto
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Communist Southeast Asia, men like Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew, the Philippines' Ferdinand Marcos and Indonesia's Suharto developed their talents during or soon after their countries achieved independence. All received a heavy dose of Western culture, and their concepts of national leadership were molded in the pattern of the imperial traditions by which they had been ruled. They were indoctrinated in character patterns thought necessary in the West to achieve supreme power in industrialized political democracies, although the traits, such as charisma or coolness under fire, have often degenerated into parody. Such leaders are less concerned with providing...
Indonesians sometimes view their political power struggles as a kind of wayang, the traditional all-night puppet show in which the villains die at dawn. For four main players in President Suharto's government, dawn finally came last week. All were generals, and two of them-Ali Murtopo and Sudjono Humardani-were members of the hated Aspri, the influential kitchen cabinet. One non-Aspri was General Sutomo Yuwono, head of the internal intelligence agency. The other was General Sumitro, boss of the security force Kopkamtib. Suharto stripped him of the Kopkamtib command and took personal charge of the secret...
...Mere Puppets. Suharto's moves cut short political maneuvering by two dangerous rivals who had helped him topple former Dictator Sukarno in 1966. Roly-poly Sumitro, a golfing partner ("My stomach is my handicap") of the President, had sought to build up a following with students. When he was reported as favoring "new national leadership," Sumitro immediately denied that he had ever thought of calling for Suharto's replacement. But to political observers it looked like a slip 'twixt cup and coup. After last month's student riots during Japanese Premier Kakuei Tanaka's visit...
...gathering power into his own hands, Suharto temporarily resolved several of his political woes. His disbanding of the Aspri was a crowd-pleasing response to student protests that his aides were corrupt. But the villains of Suharto's wayang are not mere puppets. Each of the four wily generals is potentially a powerful political figure. They may now try to write a different scenario for the next Indonesian puppet show...
...recent rioting in Jakarta was not as serious as the student demonstrations earlier this year in Thailand and South Korea. But it showed that a student protest could explode within one hour into a riot of 100,000 people. That fact was not lost on Suharto's government. The army's own rebellion against Sukarno in 1965 was also preceded by widespread student rioting in the streets of Jakarta...