Word: suhartos
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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What disturbs Indonesians and foreign observers alike is that Habibie's entire political career was based on by his closeness to Suharto. He is closer to the ousted leader than anyone else outside the President's immediate family. Their father-son relationship goes back to the death of Habibie's real father in 1950. Suharto, a military officer, befriended the family and closed the old man's eyes on his deathbed. Habibie, then 13, has revered his protector ever since. In his autobiography, Suharto wrote of the protege that he "regards me as his own parent. He always asks...
...hope he will spread their dream of Islamic ascendancy for Indonesia. Yet he is a highly educated scientist and dedicated believer in the power of technology. He studied aeronautical engineering in Germany and worked his way up to a vice presidency at the aircraft makers Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm before Suharto personally called him home in 1974 to help Indonesia establish an industrial base. For 20 years he served as Minister of Research and Technology, developing a string of "strategic industries" to build airplanes, steel mills, cars and ships in Indonesia...
...groups have fed off contracts from the state enterprises Habibie oversaw as Technology Minister, says sociologist George Aditjondro of the University of Newcastle in Australia. That does not bode well for a clean government under a Habibie presidency. "The Habibie-family companies are so deeply involved with the Suharto-family companies," says Aditjondro, that Habibie naturally "will try to protect Suharto and his family from impeachment...
...effort to reassure the moneymen and political lenders on whom Indonesia's economic revival depends, Habibie announced a new "reform and development" Cabinet that conspicuously dropped the most prominent of Suharto's cronies, and pledged to develop a government "free of corruption, collusion and nepotism." Few of Habibie's critics were impressed. Amien Rais, who leads the 28 million-member Muhammadiyah Muslim organization and has emerged as one of the strongest opposition figures in the past two weeks, said he would "neither endorse nor oppose" the new Cabinet but doubted it would last the full term...
Foreign investors are worried that Habibie may allow Muslim activists a greater role in society than they were permitted under Suharto. Unsettling signs appeared the day after Habibie's swearing in, when hundreds of Muslim protesters forced their way into Parliament to confront students still demonstrating for greater democratic reforms. They advanced shouting, "Muslims must support Habibie!" and "Religion and politics are one and the same!" The security forces had to intervene to prevent a serious riot from breaking...