Word: suhartos
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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TIME: What happens if Suharto refuses to cooperate? Does he have the IMF over a barrel...
Behind all the arguments about defaulting, restructuring and re-establishing capital, there is nearly universal puzzlement at what motivates Suharto to put his country, and himself, at such risk. Part of the answer can be found 275 miles east of Jakarta in the central Java village of Kemusu, where he was born. There, for centuries, peasants have done the bidding of the village chief in exchange for his protection, governed by a social code as intricate as the shared irrigation system. Deeply superstitious, the men of Kemusu have changed little in the half-century since Indonesia won its independence from...
...Suharto never forgot his formative values, even as he rose in the ranks of the army and came to rule in the aftermath of the deadly coup. "He was conditioned by this village," says Notosuwito, a half brother of the President's and village chief of neighboring Argomulyo since 1969. Sitting at his desk signing forms and smoking clove-scented cigarettes, Notosuwito explains that he himself has 50 retainers. They work for him, and in return he makes sure they are fed, that their daughters marry well, that they have money if they are sick. "It is similar with Suharto...
...people"? That is the crux of Indonesia's tragedy: Suharto is determined to remain President for as long as it takes to solve Indonesia's economic crisis, but he refuses to acknowledge that his family, with its tentacles deep into the nation's business interests, is part of the problem. "None of the economists around him dare to tell him the truth," says Mochtar Buchori, a newspaper columnist in Jakarta. "None have the courage to tell him, 'No, you are wrong...
...Suharto's kinglike grip on power mesmerizes all his subjects, and so far no one has dared to openly challenge him. But as he nervously surrounds himself with family and cronies, the living is getting dangerous once again...