JAKARTA: Human rights groups have condemned the inclusion of late president Suharto (pic) in the government’s proposed shortlist of nominees for national hero status and have decried human rights abuses that occurred throughout his rule.
Social Affairs Minister Saifullah Yusuf on Tuesday (Oct 21) submitted the list of 40 nominees to Culture Minister Fadli Zon, who is also the chair of the board of decorations and honorary titles, which has some say in deciding who becomes a national hero.
Besides Suharto, the list also includes late president Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid who was known as a champion of pluralism and moderate Islam, labour activist Marsinah who was murdered during Suharto’s New Order era, and former Jakarta governor Ali Sadikin.
“These proposed names have been discussed over the past few years, so some may have already met the requirements [to be named national heroes] five, six, or seven years ago,” Saifullah told reporters on Tuesday.
He did not reveal who nominated Suharto in the first place to the Social Affairs Ministry. Culture Minister Fadli said the board would soon hold a hearing to discuss the proposal before delivering it to President Prabowo Subianto who has the final say.
The proposal followed Saifullah’s comment earlier in April about the possibility of Suharto being named as a national hero this year, which prompted public outcry over Suharto’s reported human rights violations during his 32-year presidency
The Social Affairs Ministry’s nomination on Tuesday has since drawn condemnation from human rights groups, who deemed the move an “attempt to distort history”.
“This proposal by the Social Affairs Ministry is clearly a systematic attempt to whitewash the sins of Suharto’s authoritarian regime, which was rife with corruption, collusion, nepotism and human rights violations,” Amnesty International Indonesia executive director Usman Hamid said in a press release on Wednesday.
“If this proposal moves forward, the Reform movement could potentially end at the hands of Prabowo’s administration,” Usman said, adding that it would be the greatest betrayal of the people’s mandate since 1998, which led to Suharto stepping down from office.
The late president has been accused of stifling freedom of expression and silencing opposition through incidents such as the 1965-1966 mass killings, the so-called “mysterious killings” in the 1980s and the May riots of 1998.
In 2023, the administration of then-president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo recognised these events as among a dozen gross human rights violations
Activist Dimas Bagus Arya of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) denounced the inclusion of Suharto in the list and said the decision displayed President Prabowo’s “tone-deaf” administration.
“We have called for the government to side with the victims of state violence and gross human rights violations. But it seems like this regime has ultimately closed its door to public participation and only seeks to benefit a small group,” Dimas told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
Dimas said there was a clear “systematic political effort to push for the national hero title to be bestowed on Suharto, who was the former father-in-law of President Prabowo”.
Usman of Amnesty further urged the government to drop Suharto from the list of nominees, saying that his inclusion “ignores the suffering of the victims and their families, who have yet to receive justice”.
Saifullah did not immediately respond to the Post’s request for comments, but he has previously defended the proposal for Suharto to become a national hero, saying “no one is perfect”.
“Suharto, Gus Dur and the other proposed names all have inherent weaknesses and shortcomings. Why? Because they were human, and were prone to errors,” he said in April.
Minister Fadli said on Tuesday that he hoped the list would be finalised by Nov. 10, National Hero Day, kompas.com reported. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
