New Order (Indonesia)
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The New Order (Indonesian: Orde Baru) is the term coined by former Indonesian President Suharto to characterize his regime as he came to power in 1966. Suharto used this term to contrast his rule with that of his predecessor, Sukarno (dubbed dismissively as the "Old Order," or Orde Lama). The term "New Order" in more recent times has become synonymous with the Suharto years (1966-1998).
Among much of the pro-democracy movement which forced Suharto to resign in the Indonesian 1998 Revolution and then gained power, the term "New Order" has come to be used pejoratively. It is frequently employed by them to describe figures who were either tied to the Suharto regime, or who upheld practices of his authoritarian regime, such as corruption, collusion and nepotism.
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[edit] Foundations of the New Order
As the leader of the Indonesian Nationalists at time of its victory over the colonial Dutch, President Sukarno held immense moral power over the Indonesian public. This eventually translated into great political powers as well, as Sukarno became increasingly autocratic throughout the timespan of his rule.
[edit] Discontent with Sukarno
In global politics, Sukarno would embrace rhetoric denouncing the imperialism of Western capitalists, eventually nationalising many sectors of the economy. He would foster alliances with the Soviet Bloc, the People's Republic of China, as well as emerging post-colonial nations. Domestically, this translated to an alliance between Sukarno's Nationalists and the Communist Party of Indonesia.
This produced a number of enemies to the Sukarno regime, both foreign and domestic. These enemies included a substantial, right-wing oriented portion of the Indonesian army, with whom the United States would cultivate ties through military education and equipment sales. Among those in this right-wing camp included Suharto, an officer in the Indonesian Army dating to the time of independence.
When Sukarno cut ties with the United States, including shipments of food (famously telling U.S. officials "To hell with your aid!"), he was forced to adopt rationing measures amidst famine conditions. Taking advantage of this, Suharto and the right-wing camp of the military created elaborate smuggling networks. These networks would eventually create a separate form of government out of its regional command structure, down to the village level. When his role in the scheme was discovered, Suharto would be reassigned to a job at the military college in Jakarta. Disrupted momentarily, this regional command structure (including its corrupt and militaristic aspects) would be revived when Suharto took power.
[edit] Overthrow of Sukarno
On September 30, 1965, against a backdrop of war with Malaysia and her allies in the Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation, six generals of the right-wing camp were assassinated by guards of Sukarno. The guards alleged a right-wing plot to kill the president. Having escaped assassination, and being in the Jakarta area where they took place, Suharto led the army as field general in its retaliation against the alleged perpetrators in the Communist Party of Indonesia. This war against Communists, their sympathizers, and the Chinese would go on until 1966.
Though estimates of those killed by Suharto's forces vary widely, it is broadly thought that Suharto's forces had killed, imprisoned or forced into exile every member of the Communist Party of Indonesia and its mass groups. Contemporary sources place the size of this group at roughly 3 million persons. The Communist Party and its mass groups, a key part of the Sukarno-era government, had been liquidated and Sukarno forced to deal directly with the right-wing military.
[edit] Beginnings of the New Order
After being promoted, Suharto was assigned emergency powers on March 11, 1966 through a presidential decree by Sukarno known as the Supersemar. He would then go on to become president in 1967. Suharto would proclaim the New Order, a system of authoritarian rule to reconstruct the country.
[edit] Political imprisonment
Under the New Order, surviving members of the Communist Party of Indonesia, as well as those considered sympathizers or fellow travelers, were branded "political detainees" (Indonesian: tahanan politik) commonly appreviated tapol. During and after the civil war, tapol were often given harsh prison sentences without trial, and their property was either seized or destroyed.
Tapol often served sentences including internal exile to penal colonies on desolated islands within the Indonesian archipelago. These included Buru island in the Maluku Islands. Among its more famous prisoners included author and PEN Freedom to Write winner Pramoedya Ananta Toer, who was imprisoned there for alleged membership in a Communist Party literary group, LEKRA. In a book of memoirs (The Mute's Soliloquy), Pramoedya made detailed allegations of forced labour, starvation, torture and other abuses within the colony. ("Tapol Troubles" 1999)
Though the New Order released virtually all surviving tapol by 1979, they continued to be social outcastes afterward. All tapol were required to carry an ID card, stamped "ET" for ex-tapol, and have these ID cards renewed every three years. Many, including Pramoedya, lived under virtual house arrest into the 1990s. Spouses, children, and relatives of tapol have often carried a stigma of guilt by association and commonly face discrimination. Elderly tapol have in more recent times sued in order to win back their rights to vote, and for compensation for their losses.
[edit] Anti-Chinese laws
For more detail on this topic, see Chinese Indonesian and Anti-Chinese legislation in Indonesia
While resentment toward the Chinese Indonesians by Austronesian descended peoples of the archipelago dated back to the Dutch East Indies era, persisting through the Post-Independence era, the Indonesian Civil War unleashed both widescale violence and a new tide of anti-Chinese legislation throughout the archipelago. Stereotypes of the Chinese as disproportionately affluent and greedy were common throughout the time (both in Indonesia as well as Malaysia), but with the anti-Communist hysteria, the association of the Chinese Indonesians with the People's Republic of China caused them to also be viewed as a communist fifth column.
As a result of this hysteria, Indonesia's hitherto friendly diplomatic relations with mainland China were severed and the Chinese Embassy in Jakarta burnt down by a mob. Several anti-Chinese laws were passed to curtail Chinese culture and civil rights, including laws mandating closure of Chinese language schools, adoption of "Indonesian" sounding names, and severe limits on Buddhist temple construction. The lasting effects of these laws and anti-Chinese sentiment fostered by the Suharto regime was demonstrated in the organization of anti-Chinese pogroms in 1998.
[edit] Military rule
The liquidatation and banning of the Communist Party eliminated one of the largest political parties in Indonesia. It had placed third in a 1955 election. It was also among the largest Communist Parties in the Comintern, at an estimated 3 million members. Along with the subsequent efforts by Suharto to wrest power from Sukarno by purging loyalists from the parliament, civilian government in Indonesia was effectively put to an end by the civil war.
In the place of civilian rule, a new system of military rule took hold, based on set-aside seats in the Parliament as well as the dwi fungsi (dual function) doctrine of the military, in taking the roles of both soldiers and administrators. The political parties not banned outright were consolidated into a single party, the Party of the Functional Groups (Indonesian: Partai Golongan Karya), more commonly known as Golkar. Though Suharto would allow for the formation of two non-Golkar parties, these were kept weak during his regime.
[edit] Rise of Islamism
The purging of two secularist parties, the Nationalists and the Communists, had a notable side effect of having given greater space for the development of Islamism in Indonesia. This included liberal, conservative, and extremist groups practicing Islam in Indonesia. It widely believed by observers of Indonesian history and politics that Suharto's forces whipped up anti-Communist sentiment in part by exploiting conservative Muslims' fears of "godless" Communism to instigate a jihad against them during the civil war.
As for more mainstream groups, conservative Islamic groups (called the "Central Axis") became a prop of the regime for some time after the civil war. Liberal Islamic groups, on the other hand, are believed to have defected during the wave of protests before the Indonesian Revolution of 1998.
[edit] Improved ties with the West
The change in regime from Sukarno to Suharto, though brutal, brought a shift in policy that allowed for USAID and other relief agencies to operate within the country. Suharto would open Indonesia's economy by divesting state owned companies, and Western nations in particular were encouraged to invest and take control of many of the mining and construction interests in Indonesia. The result was the alleviation of absolute poverty and famine conditions due to shortfalls in rice supply and Sukarno's reluctance to take Western aid, and stabilisation of the economy.
As a result of his victory in the civil war, Suharto would come to be seen as a pro-Western and anti-Communist strongman regime, similar to that of Augusto Pinochet. An ongoing military and diplomatic relationship between the Indonesia and the Western powers was cemented, leading to American, British, and Australian arms sales and training of military personnel.
[edit] Height of the New Order
The two decades immediately following Suharto's wresting of power were marked by an expansion of Indonesia's military and economic power, as well as the assertion of Indonesian identity over regional or ethnic identities. Conversely, Indonesia under Suharto had little tolerance for dissent, and is generally thought of as an abuser of human rights.
[edit] "Asian Tiger" Economy
On economic matters, the New Order tended to rely on a group of American-educated economists, nicknamed the "Berkeley Mafia," to set policy. Soon after coming to power, he passed a number of reforms meant to establish Indonesia as a center of foreign investment. These included the privatization of its natural resources to promote their exploitation by industrialized nations, labour laws favorable to multinational corporations, and soliciting funds for development from institutions including the World Bank, Western banks, and friendly governments. ("Indonesia Economic" 2005)
These policies were widely credited for having alleviated absolute poverty in Indonesia, and for having established Indonesia as an industrializing nation. Indonesia would experience unprecedented growth, thanks to its export driven economy. As unchecked forces in Indonesian society under New Order, however, members of the military and Golkar Party were heavily involved as intermediaries between the booming corporations (foreign and domestic) and the Indonesian government. This lead to a great deal of corruption in the form of bribery, racketeering, and embezzlement. Funds from these practices often flowed to foundations (yayasan) controlled by the Suharto family.
The system became so lucrative for the Suharto and his inner circle that Berlin-based NGO Transparency International named Suharto the world's most corrupt politician, having taken an estimated between $15M and $35M in state funds and bribery. The vestiges of this system, on the business and military community, are seen as having become so entrenched that Indonesia has continued to be ranked among the world's most corrupt nations.
[edit] Unitary state and regional unrest
A key tenet of the New Order was the idea of the "unitary state" and the necessity of territorial gain of "Greater Indonesia" (Indonesia Raya). Suharto acted zealously to stake and enforce its territorial claims over much of the region through both diplomacy and military action.
In 1969, Suharto moved to end the longtime controversy over the last Dutch territory in the East Indies, western New Guinea. Working with the United States and United Nations, an agreement was made to hold a referendum on self-determination, in which participants could choose to remain part of the Netherlands, to integrate with the Republic of Indonesia, or to become independent. Though originally phrased to be a nationwide vote of all adult Papuans, the "Act of Free Choice" was held July–August 1969 allowed only 1022 "chiefs" to vote. The unanimous vote was for integration with the Republic of Indonesia, leading to doubts of the validity of the vote. (Simpson)
In 1975, after Portugal withdrew from its colony of East Timor and the Fretilin movement momentarily took power, Suharto ordered troops to invade the country. Later the puppet government installed by Indonesia requested the area be annexed to the country. It was estimated that 100,000 people, roughly a third of the local population, were killed by the Indonesian forces or affiliated proxy forces. On July 15, 1976 East Timor became the province of Timor Timur until it was transferred to the United Nations in 1999.
In 1976, the regime was challenged in the province of Aceh by the formation of the Free Aceh Movement, or GAM, who demanded independence from the unitary state. Suharto quickly authorized troops to put down the rebellion, forcing several of its leaders into exile in Sweden. Prolonged fighting between GAM and the Indonesian military and police led Suharto to declare martial law in the province, by naming Aceh a "military operational area" (DOM) in 1990.
Underpinning Suharto's territorial ambitions was the rapid development of Indonesia's traditional urban centers. The rapid pace of this development had vastly increased their population density. In response, Suharto pursued the policy of transmigration to promote movement from crowded cities to rural regions of the archipelago where natural resources had not yet been exploited.
[edit] Politics and dissent
In 1970, corruption prompted student protests and an investigation by a government commission. Suharto responded by banning student protest, forcing the activists underground. Only token prosecution of cases recommended by the commission was pursued. The pattern of co-opting a few of his more powerful opponents while criminalising the rest became a hallmark of the New Order government.
In order to maintain a veneer of democracy, Suharto made a number of electoral reforms. He stood for election before electoral college votes every five years, beginning in 1973. According to his electoral rules, however, only three parties were allowed to participate in the election: his own Golkar party; the Islamist United Development Party (PPP), and the Democratic Party of Indonesia (PDI). All the previously existing political parties were forced to be part of either the PPP and PDI, with public servants under pressure to join the membership of Golkar. In a political compromise with the powerful military, he banned its members from voting in elections, but set aside 100 seats in the electoral college for their representatives. As a result, he won every election in which he stood, in 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, and 1998.
This authoritarianism became an issue in the 1980s. On May 5, 1980 a group Petition of Fifty (Petisi 50) demanded greater political freedoms. It was composed of former military men, politicians, academics and students. The Indonesian media suppressed the news and the government placed restrictions on the signatories. After the group's 1984 accusation that Suharto was creating a one-party state, some of its leaders were jailed.
In the same decade, it is believed by many scholars that the Indonesian military split between a nationalist "red and white faction" and an Islamist "green faction." As the 1980s closed, Suharto is said to have been forced to shift his alliances from the former to the latter, leading to the rise of Jusuf Habibie in the 1990s.
After the 1990s brought end of the Cold War, Western concern over communism waned, and Suharto's human rights record came under greater international scrutiny. In 1991, the murder of East Timorese civilians in a Dili cemetery, also known as the "Santa Cruz Massacre" , caused American attention to focus on its military relations with the Suharto regime and the question of Indonesia's occupation of East Timor. In 1992, this attention resulted in the Congress of the United States passing limitations on IMET assistance to the Indonesian military, over the objections of President George H.W. Bush.[1] In 1993, under President Bill Clinton, the U.S. delegation to the UN Human Rights Commission helped pass a resolution expressing deep concern over Indonesian human rights violations in East Timor.[2]
[edit] End of the New Order
For more details on this topic, see Indonesian Revolution of 1998
The New Order government of Suharto began to fall with more strident demands for democracy from within Indonesia's legal political parties. Criticism of the New Order's authoritarianism, human rights abuses, and situation of East Timor from Western NGOs and politicians began to isolate the regime diplomatically. The onset of the 1997 Asian financial crisis in Indonesia, and the stubbornness of Suharto in adopting reforms to address the crisis drew greater scrutiny from international lenders to the New Order corruption and lack of transparency. These factors culminated in the Indonesian Revolution of 1998 and the resignation of Suharto as president.
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ See United States Cong. House of Representatives. 102nd Congress, 2d Session. H.R. 5368, 2nd Session Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 1993. Title III - International Military Education and Training.
- ^ See UN Commission on Human Rights resolution 1993/97, "Situation in East Timor"
- Camdessus Commends Indonesian Actions. Press Release. International Monetary Fund. (31 October 1997)
- Colmey, John. "The Family Firm", TIME Asia, 24 May 1999.
- "Indonesia: Arrests, torture and intimidation: The Government's response to its critics", Amnesty International, 27 November 1996.
- Indonesia Economic. Commanding Heights. Retrieved on May 23, 2005.
- "Public Expenditures, Prices and the Poor", World Bank, 1993.
- Simpson, Brad. "Indonesia's 1969 Takeover of West Papua Not by "Free Choice"", National Security Archive, 9 July 2004.
- "Tapol Troubles: When Will They End?", Inside Indonesia, April-June 1999.
- Toer, Pramoedya Ananta (2000). The Mute's Soliloquy : A Memoir. Penguin. ISBN 0-14-028904-6.
