The Inheritance Soeharto

Michael Vatikiotis my friend in the 1980 's when he was the Far Eastern Economic Review magazine correspondent who rose in Hong Kong.
He the American resident, the Greek descendants.
His article from Jakarta was balanced, the objective described the situation in this country.
Afterwards he was promoted to the editor-in-chief Far Eastern Economic Review. The magazine currently has the deceased. I lost contact with Vatikiotis.
Had not met again.He wrote the book of "Indonesian Politics Under Suharto".
Some length time he lived in Singapore to the guest scholar to the university there.
He was still hard-working wrote about the development of the Indonesian situation.
Also about Thailand, Malaysia, etc.. After President Soeharto died on January 27 2008 Michael Vatikiotis wrote concerning the Soeharto inheritance in a American newspaper.
For information for the reader was quoted by me here parts of the article.
Vatikiotis began to tell about the Soeharto death.
With the Soeharto death of many observers will be tempted to state the authoritarian chapter ending from the Indonesian history.
While Soeharto was still living, there were no hope closed or replaced the loss for his outstanding excesses from his government for three decades, the reason impunitas (untouched by the law) that was enjoyed by him.
Now after he went, his danger of being the person will too much be easy forgot and meninabobokkan himself inside believed that Indonesia was in a course that could not be turned again to the side of the freedom of the equality and justice.
The sadness, the aim was far than was guaranteed by the existence.
Vatikiotis words, a political culture that maintained took care of elites that considered themselves important and were corrupt as well as tended regarded quiet or disobeyed demands of the people would justice and the equality still really was in his place.
Democracy was as a system carried out for one decade, but democracy as a belief still was very weak.

How we will believe other, if the Vice President now (his intention to Jusuf Kalla, although his name was not filled by him) described democracy as an implement and not as the aim of the national development Or when not a single could be asked for bore he replied for the spurting of the mud flow from a field of bad gas that was owned by an influential family and that messed up the inhabitants's residence in East Java.
Or could not a single that knew that an activist human rights (his intention to Munir).
The survival lived determinedly what was named by "feudal mentality" Indonesians helped explained the historic cycle from the revolution, the liberation, the dictatorship, brought came back to the revolt and the liberation that became the characteristics of 60 tahunu that was previous this.
The president of the founder Indonesian Soekarno led a revolution that brought about one of the Asian democracies that were youngest in a multiparty manner in independence in 1949 (his intention the surrender of the sovereignty from the Netherlands to Republic of Indonesia Serikat).
The general election in 1955 still it was considered a sign expression measured from the people's desire.


But kekenesan Soekarno and bombast convinced him that his leadership was enough to become the guide for the country, and democracy became withered and died.
During 1968 General Soeharto seized the control of the authority in the middle of protests and the student's unrest that called was ended by him Soekarno's dictatorship.
Two decades afterwards, a new generation of the students mentioned Soeharto was the dictator and 10 years more, during 1998 Soeharto was forced turunu from the authority, after the students occupied parliament's building (People's Representative Council-People's Consultative Assembly), allowed his cabinet to throw him and the interesting troops the support.
The period had since then caused hope that the system poliltik from negari was firm on the democratic road.
An optimistic sign was the capacity to dismiss the voice to lift and drop the officials that is four presidents in one decade off compared with only two presidents in the period semicentenially beforehand.
The general election was held freely and justly in all the levels and the troops withdrew from the political arena.
Then mengaka worried concerning the future?
Practical was a truth in South-East Asia that general elections not his healthy measurement democracy.
See Thailand, where more than one democratic progress decade brought most observers concluded fully pepercayaan that a change was realised.
Instead of came a military coup, was like this the article of Michael Vatikiotis.
In Indonesia, said Vatikiotis, had not had a tradition of the military coup, but was gotten by a long rank from patronage (the protection) and paternalism (the paternalism) that tended to focus the wealth in the hands a small group of that scattered-scattered nature resources that could be used to be made use of by many people.