Indonesia: Suharto's Military-Backed Regime in Retrospect

Abstract

In Indonesia, political bickering against Sukarno has started long before his rise to power and escalated towards his 1959 declaration of Guided Democracy (GD), which he believed was an alternative to liberal democracy. GD turned out to be politically repressive. Sukarno had never concealed his support of the PKI (Indonesian Communist Party). Sukarno appointed Suharto as army commander in chief, who would eventually lead to the former’s overthrow. The latter, by abusing his powers, defied the former. These instances served as premises to Sukarno’s overthrow and to Suharto’s assumption as president. Suharto’s New Order government, which was established in 1966, has been using manipulation, pressure, and intimidation to maintain its rule. Its original structure, which was supposedly built on the alliance among the bureaucrats, military, students, and political parties, had crumbled.