Informative as usual. 👍 Btw, I was surprised that there are just a few videos on US presidents. I thought there would be one about Abraham Lincoln. It would be great to see a complete playlist 😁
Sir Douglas Mawson request ‘Outside the bowl of chaos was brimming with drift-snow and as I lay in the sleeping-bag beside my dead companion I wondered how, in such conditions, I would manage to break and pitch camp single-handed. There appeared to be little hope of reaching the Hut, still 100 miles away.’ Intrigued? No, it’s not something out of Lovecraft. It’s actually a diary entry from a very real Antarctic expedition that (by coincidence) was name dropped in Lovecraft’s ‘At the Mountains of Madness’. Still intrigued? Then let me formally place my request for a Biographics episode on Sir Douglas Mawson, an Australian geologist, explorer, and academic. Also the face on our $100 bill. This groundbreaking expedition is only one event in a very eventful life.
If you look at Indonesia today, you could see that a lot of our issues are a result of Soeharto's policies. Our deep culture of corruption within the government, separatist sentiments in Papua, and a noticeable difference between the development of Java when compared to other provinces. He certainly left his mark on this country...
Yes, it is still not making any sense that this is still happening today especially after the fact that we kept on boasting about how many islands we have and none of them are developed properly, none but java. I mean, borneo along with sumatra are incredibly bigger than any island in indonesia but its land are still mostly empty and under developed. Thankfully efforts are being made, my hometown pontianak has an international airport now and our commercial port has been bigger than ever but these efforts are painfully very slow to progress especially if you compare to what Jakarta has accomplished. But hey, at least the borneo aint sinking and earthquakes are rare (west borneo had no earthquake at all too and no volcano). I will count my blessing.
It never crossed any of ur mind that building city and any infrastructure inside it will cost a massive amount of money? Money that our government clearly lacking. Even up to this day, many area in java is still very underdeveloped and poor. Why do u think we can built a big city everywhere when the richest country in the world (US) cant and still have a wide area of poor and underdeveloped region. Even trying to build a single new capital city takes a long time of planning and might bring an inflation crisis.
Correction on the Papua point. While most of the worst abuse that Papuan peoples had suffered did occur during the Suharto years, let's not act like this was caused by him. In reality, the (forced) incorporation of Papua began in 1963 when Indonesia invaded the region, which was still during Sukarno's regime. Sukarno had western countries, like the US, help him out too as American president JFK pressured the Dutch to give up West Papua to Indonesia so that Sukarno can come to America's sphere of influence against the Soviets. So if anything, Suharto's abuse of West Papua was simply a continuation of what Sukarno started. Which unfortunately still continues to this day as the Indonesian military regularly kills Papuan peoples if they even suspect them of being separatists. Some things just don't go away with time, sadly.
@@aldyhabibie9717 Even many regions in java island itself e.g. Tasikmalaya, Trenggalek, Bondowoso, etc are not as developed as Jakarta or any other big cities outside Java Island e.g. Medan, Batam, Makassar, Palembang, etc.
@@lastrationalist7890 Rubbish. Military didn't kill Papuans. Instead, Papuan civilians were held hostage, killed, or even raped by West Papuan rebels. Last year, a Christian mission "Gereja Kemah Injil" was burned (2020). Years before, a village at Nduga was held hostage and teachers were raped by Papuan rebels (2018). West Papua was indeed part of Indonesia based on "uti possidetis iuris" basis, means that its constitutional territory legally including all of the former Dutch East Indies territory. During the agreement of "Konferensi Meja Bundar" at The Hague in 1949, *Indonesia had agreed to pay all the debts of Dutch East Indies* in exchange of: 1) Indonesia must became United States of Indonesia / federal states, 2) The withdrawal of Dutch troops from Indonesia and 3) The issue of West Papua province would be determined through negotiation between United States of Indonesia and Dutch government within a year after. However, Dutch betrayed its promise. Until 1950, Dutch refused to talk about West Papua province even though Indonesia had to pay all the debts and war damages (Indonesia paid until 2002!). So, in response, Indonesia nationalized many Dutch companies within its territory. The rebels still exist are because 1) Freeport mine contract is going to be over and some foreign parties are not happy with this condition so they intervene and make instability in Papua, 2) Inequality and mistreatments during Suharto times.
My father used to tell me a story of how PKI members were decapitated by locals just around the corner from my old house. Saying "If you dig up a hole around that area near the fence, I bet you will at least find one skull"
in my father's area PKI members were tied to rock and drowned in the rivers. its not until very recently he's brave enough to tell it. it was a hush hush topic for quite a long whole
@@Balthorium That's petty. Maybe most of them had jobs, and families, and decided to be members of a political party that advocates for their interests as workers. Of course at the time there was a lot of communist revolutions, but most people are not generally violent.
@@Balthorium No, but do you have evidence that the PKI planned to do a mass execution? You do realize that they were executed in mass based on party affiliation, right? Rationalizing that is not healthy, and it works both ways.
The worst thing during 1965-1966 massacre is, many non-PKI also get executed, it so easy to accuse someone as "PKI", just report to the nearest army outpost (KODIM) call it "X is an PKI member !" just like that, someone will be kidnapped in the middle of the night, tortured and forcefully confessed as "PKI member" and the next morning, he/she is already dead, many people report their neighbour even relatives just because they wanted a revenge or have some problem, not because they're truly PKI member.
Yep, sometimes it just needs to be a gathering of people for the military or common thugs to “collect” them, then torture them, then finally kill and hide the bodies. Happened to my uncle’s father back then.
Don't forget the post mass killings 1968-1975 or Buru Island project, somehow they don't do execution regularly anymore, instead they kidnapped 12.5k alleged communist supporters. They divide them into 3 ranks, A rank will highly get executed, while B and C will work till' the project is over by "opening" Buru Island and installing plantation there.
worst thing ? because killing a PKI member isnt already a "worst thing" ? LOL... what an evil sentence... they were all unarmed and not incline to do any violence. They were slaughtered too..
Today we have this jokes in Indonesia "Beware of the food peddler in front of your house, it may be Soeharto's agents and secret police coming after you" so Simon make sure to check infront of your house wether you see a fish and chips sellers with walkie talkie
@@apalahartisebuahnama7684 This is the hard truth, kinda reminds me of when Hitler took a trip around Germany (Or France?) And he counted every single gestapo agents he could find in public, lets just say he counted alot of them.
The most ironic fact, when Indonesian govt decide to liquidate all the assets owned by his childrens and his cronies due to corruption cases and doing extensive investigation on the allegations that his family + his cronies hid the rest of the money they were siphoned out from the country during his era on a Swiss bank accounts, his family and his former cronies were fighting back with all the remaining power they had. Raising lots of suspicions that even if he's not doing any corruptions like he claimed, his family members and his cronies were doing it on its behalf. In fact, lots of Indonesians that were grow up troughout his era remembers clearly that some of his childrens is a total infamy, one of his daughters had a very bad habit of frequently doing a shopping spree on Europe. His eldest son is a well known gambler on Las Vegas. The other son trapped on a very embarrasing scandal for divorcing his perfect wife that already with him trough the good and bad times after he got caught by public for cheating with a not-so-famous singer, causing his children from his first wife to went rampage on the most scandalous story ever known. While his youngest son (his most beloved son), had a very infamous crime record, imprisoned for killing a judge that were investigating corruption case involving his family a year or two after his father kicked out from power. And in some recent elections his family members mainly one of his daughter who used to actively engaging on politics during his father era were trying to return to the politics by endlessly sells the stories about how 'good' the living standards were during his father era. A thing that were booed by many Indonesians who already well remember all of soeharto sins and his family sins towards the country. Well, in short, he's the most corrupted tyrant the world ever know regardless of his good achievements.
By the way, that well in East Jakarta where the generals' bodies were dumped is now a museum. And it's one creepy museum. It's located in a somewhat quiet spot of East Jakarta with good amounts of greenery... and an incredibly detailed dioramas of supposed torture.
Fun fact about the Supersemar, it's still a mystery about the existence of the real letter. The letter that you see is just a copy. Even the 3 letters that were kept by ANRI (The National Archive of Indonesia) were declared 'not authentic'. So not only does Soeharto use the Supersemar to his advantage, but he could even alter the letter for his advantage. So the real content, meaning, or purpose of the letter is still a mystery for us Indonesian to this day.
This Soeharto guy must've been a real political genius, i must say. Always has a trick to get his way to the top and stayed on the top for 32 years nonetheless.
@@aldyhabibie9717 it's either that he is genius politician or that we indonesian people were just a little bit too fool for falling into his scheme multiple times.
Back in general elections of 2014 and 2019 many islamist hardlines suddenly became suharto's fanbois. They are Id iots, had they not know the Tanjung Priuk and Talangsari msacres? 😂
@@harukrentz435 if there existed a more corrupt and ideologically bankrupt political movement than that of the communist in the last century, it has to be political Islam. Its one of the best platform for the least talented, zero skilled, clueless moral hypocrites to bid for political power. Their claims of the right to rule, often by ridding rough shot over anything seen as an alternative idea to that of theirs is seemingly being able to communicate directly with god. They are always very sure of what, who, why and when god hates, forbids, demands or is condemning to hell. Predictably one of their fundamental political doctrine is their leadership is beyond reproach nor bound by any real accountability. The moral posturing and pretense of religious piousness of this political movement does not translate nor manifest itself in actions of their administrations or governments they run. They are often as corrupt and authoritarian if not more than some of the worst communist dictatorship.
Yes especially Chinese Ethnic, Suharto use the Chinese Ethnic as a Scapegoat, saying that Chinese Ethnic are the one who cause Economic Down, and the result was 1998 Crisis.
@@lan8401 To be honest, many ethnic chinese indeed benefited during his regime. Nowadays chinese conglomerates in Indonesia still can trace their growth to Soeharto's Era
@@josephberthier3360 their origin came from the colonial resistance era tho. they are the ones who smuggled weapons to our country risking their stable life of being merchants (their connections with soeharto also came from this time). heck most of the money making national industry made by them (like the cement industry, steel industry etc), there are books about it too. the propaganda of racism is like a custom made sword purposefully aimed to check on those conglomerates from becoming too powerful and takeover his power. their family can still keep growing to this day because they are smart businessmen. not that i like that they are the powerful ones cause they are also the greedy exploiters that lead to many environmental problems in indonesia today. but if there is one thing i can think is good about them is they are smart at business and not incompetent unlike soeharto's children and cronies who can make cashcows like pertamina or national airline industry (in an airline market boom) a failing business. in conclusion i prefer a greedy competent people rather than incompetent greedy bastards like soeharto and his cronies.
as an American living in Indonesia since 2007, i can say this is a quality discussion by the author Arnando Teodorsno and presented by Simon Whistler- of a complicated, confusing, and often brutal period in Indonesian history.
what is confusing ? the fact that CIA and the US governements pushed and helped suharto to slaughter 1 million people and assisted clapping to the confinement in "re-education camps" (read concentrament camps) of other 2 million people ? Or this was GOOD just because they were all dangerous communists ? so "communism" is dangerous, and need to be ended with any possible mean, including terrorism, mass murder and slaughter, while any eventual violence committed by communists has to be violently destroyed ? to the point of killing million people ? you yankees are fat hypocrites
1:15 - Chapter 1 - The future president new clothes 3:10 - Chapter 2 - The making of a general 5:45 - Chapter 3 - Fence sitting 8:20 - Mid roll ads 9:45 - Chapter 4 - Years of living dangerously 12:15 - Chapter 5 - 3 marches to power 14:10 - Chapter 6 - Indonesia new order 16:40 - Chapter 7 - Deep pockets 18:25 - Chapter 8 - Stick & carrot 20:05 - Chapter 9 - Downfall - Chapter 10 -
Some mistakes: 1. One word name is/was not common in many Indonesians, but common in many Javans. Although, more than half of us are Javan... 2. Soekarno was never a general, at least militarily. There is no record at all about his military record... Btw, the name Achmed rarely used and many consider that Achmed part of his name was only used to earn foreign support. 3. ASEAN does not equivalent of NATO in the region, it's an economic pact that closer to EU or EEC. 4. At Soeharto's downfall, BJ Habibie wasn't his deputy, but his Vice President. Btw, thanks for bringing this topic in your channel.
The "Ahmed" in front of Soekarno's name was invented by foreign journalist. Many were confused because he only had one word for his name, hence why they add "Ahmed". Soekarno himself often questioned the addindum and talked about how unneccesary it was, hence why he never used "Ahmed". Different to Soeharto who was more than happy to use "Muhammad" in front of his name, that his official name is H.M (Haji Muhammad) Soeharto.
@@harukrentz435 Soeharto would happily use 'Muhammad' in his name to enforce his image as conservative Muslim's friend, complete opposite of what he did in 1984.
I think you should go for a video about BJ Habibie too: a top rank aviation engineer and inventor in Europe who became the president of Indonesia by "accident" after Soeharto's downfall, raised IDR value up to Rp 6000/USD, for only to be called off by the parliament after only nine months in the office
yes BJ Habibie was a very underrated hero an unsung hero, even though he did many things to save our economy from the brink of total collapse but the people at that time loath him very much because of his connection with Suharto, as Habibie is the "Anak Emas"
@@naseh446 tapi ingat, nilai uang tidak sama dengan kuantitasnya, jika anda punya gaji 6 juta sekarang, terus nilai rupiah jadi 7.500 rp / dollar, nanti kemungkinan besar gaji anda turun jadi 3 juta
I spent my childhood in the later days of New Order. The education system puts heavy emphasis on obedience, and there was a time the English language was banned. Businesses (inc my parents') that use English names have to rebrand to Indonesian names. Then there was the discrimination against Indo-Chinese
I think the push for more indonesian language is not unique to Soeharto's Indonesia. The same thing also happens in other countries, such as turkey, or even democratic France and Canada (Quebec)
Huh? if anything english language was being promoted heavily on his last few years in the power. Take Hong Kong movies for example, all of them were dubbed into english, instead of Indonesian. I still remember feeling disappointed because the eng dub actors lack of emotion lol
@@harukrentz435 English was not promoted heavily, the reason you watched HK movies in English, because it was pirated and meant for population with no Chinese ethnics like Europe. In Indonesia HK movies was dubbed into Mandarin not English and subtitle in Indonesian! You sound like you know Indonesia very little. LOL!
Here in Indonesia, we have this song "The Father of Development, Suharto" Sujud kami bagiMu yang Esa Terima kasih atas karunia Sandang pangan, pembangunan Kau limpahkan bagi negeri Indonesia Seorang bapak yang telah Kau cipta Tuk membimbing negeri tercinta Wibawanya dan senyumnya Memberi ceria wajah Indonesia Kepadamu Bapak kami Soeharto Terima kasih dari rakyat semua Dibelakangmu kami siaga Demi kejayaan Indonesia! Kepadamu Bapak kami Soeharto Terima kasih dari rakyat semua Didadamu kami serahkan Bapak pembangunan Indonesia!
Fun fact: nobody actually knows the actual full details of the contents of the supersemar letter, due to there only being 5 witnesses, including suharto, and all of them gave contradicting statements regarding the contents of the letter, and the one on display in the presidential palace in bogor is being disputed to being the actual letter.
Wow, Soeharto? I didnt expect this. My uncle was actually one of the muscle man who kidnap his opponent, and i have a chinese friend in high scholl that part of her family killed by mobs in 1998
Reading about the mass killings of 1965-66 is horrific. So is the Occupation of East Timor. This guy has so much blood on his hands (not to mention being incredibly corrupt as well). And the USA backed him of course (even helping with the killings indirectly. Just a tragedy all around.
I wish he had spoken more about U.S involvement. It's so relevant to what we're doing now all over the place, and if more people knew about it more people would be against it.
Suharto's hands are bloody until the early 1990s for as far as I know: • 1965-66: the mass killings • 1975: East Timor occupation 1970s-1980s: Mysterious Shootings (ID: Petrus/Penembak Misterius, misusing the Indonesian pronounciation of Peter), a series of extrajudicial killings of street criminals • 1984: Massacre over at Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta. Over 30 people were killed after a certain fracas between on-duty soldiers and local community members and locals' opposition against the regime led to a bloodshed • 1989: Massacre in Talangsari, East Lampung. Also caused by locals' opposition against the regime • 1991: Massacre in Santa Cruz cemetery, Dili, East Timor. In his last years of power, Suharto went soft towards the up and coming urban middle class with conservative Muslim upbringing by performing the Hajj to Mecca (he was believed to practice a syncretistic Javanese belief system named Kejawen up until this point), establishing the Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals' Association (ID: Ikatan Cendekiawan Muslim Indonesia), headed by his future successor Habibie, and generally being a bit less hostile towards conservative Muslims, a complete 180⁰ compared to what he did in 1984 and 1989.
@@krisniznik3953 There have been speculations about this, at least in 1965 where it was alleged that one of the higher ups in PKI (the Indonesian Communist Party) was a CIA mole.
This biography missed quite an important part . Many of his corruptions were only revealed to the public on late 80's, which coincided to the collapse of USSR. Suharto was indeed supported by the CIA in order to prevent Indonesia from falling into communism. But once the biggest communist player in the world (USSR) collapsed, the US didn't need Suharto anymore. There are not few who believe that his downfall was orchestrated by CIA. He was more or less, the Indonesian counterpart of Francisco Franco (whom was another authoritarian leader who used the threat of communism as a leverage to keep him on power). But of course the difference was that Franco actually remained on power until his death.
*My Mom Uncle critized Soharto* *two weeks later* Huh He just disappear. That was a lie (He just had to remove his newpaper company) , but also true. Many critics of Soharto just disappear or exile to Island of Buru. and yes Soharto's family does infact committed corruption. Much of their property as well as their land is from the government and created by the government and the income from that property goes to their families not the government, like example Taman mini Indonesia. Now our government is still struggling with the dispute and trying to get it back.
I am feeling very grateful that this channel managed to make this video, especially since the records of his government is rather scarce or was destroyed on purpose. What's hilarious is that he condemned Communism but his policies are similar to that very same idea he condemned.
@@sukmapradana7812 You are wrong, it wasn't about atheism! CIA was behind the coup and the muslims were their tools to achieve their goal. Btw did you there are many muslim, christians, monks and other believers in China? Don't let yourself brainwashed by western propaganda!
Just one correction, while initially, Japanese invaders were might have welcomed as liberators, it was completely untrue during the rest of the Japanese occupation of Indonesia because approximately 4 million Indonesians died between 1942 and 1945 as a result of famine and forced labour.
My great grandfather was a PKI supporter and one of the victims of the anti-communist purge. He was arrested and never seen again. We don't know when and where he died, where he was burried, he was practically gone.
I still remember what my mom said to me when i was 12 y.o When she was a kid, there were some guys giving away the bread and skimmed milk. If you reject it, you still alive. If you accept it, you'll be dead soon by some unknown group. Some of the neighbor accepted it, tomorrow her house got raided by the unknown group. And i still remember that if someone choosing other than golkar during election day, you'll be dead. Weirdly enough, one of her mom's friend got raided. I can't really tell bout the the victims there. Cuz they were all gone
Kemusuk, Argomulyo, Sedayu, Bantul, Yogyakarta. I live about 3km from there (still same village). There is still a strong presence of Soeharto era in the area
Winfield Scott’s march on Mexico City is the he greatest military achievement of any us general. Part of this may be due to Santa Anna genuinely being so inept. For every napoleon there is an Austrian general so inept the guy across from him looks like the goat.
You understand that what happened in East Timor is considered genocide as well as what happened in 1965 right ? And the U.S backed most of Suharto's actions ?
Indonesia was not the only country that had to deal with coups from the army, there were also countries like Brasil, Argentina, Pakistan, Myanmar and so on.
It fills that description, you need to experience that by living in Indonesia at that time. He's an Indonesian's Mao, his way of doing things like giving the poor food to eat as a way of gaining sympathy in countryside. His propaganda movie, is very similar to Mao's version.
In another way, however, his willingness to liberalize the economy through the policies set upon by the "Berkeley Mafia" shows hints of Deng and his policies of creating SEZs to better raise China's own economy.
@@eavyeavy2864 Are you seriously comparing one of the most corrupt, bloody authoritarians with Republican presidents? His legacies still brings problems to Indonesian even until today, 24 years after his rule.
There is a conspiracy theory of Soeharto is the one who arrange the 1965 coup, there is just so many things that is so convenient for Soeharto, here some that I found interesting: -He knows some of the officer who do the coup -Ahmad Yani is supposedly, the candidate for the next president and he and Soeharto has some rivalry -If it is indeed a PKI plot, why is there no mass armed movement? Considering that PKI is a massive party with millions of members with alot of sympathizers in the military, they could easily stage a rebellion and the army cant do anything because they are paralyzed. Those are just some points that supported Soeharto's involvement. Sadly no clear evidence tho.
"Do not be deceived by an orator, because of his speech, before there is evidence of his actions" - Abdul Malik Karim Amrullah Hamka (Indonesian Islamic leader)
19:38 A minor correction: the name of the movement was FRETILIN (Frente Revolucionária de Timor-Leste Independente or Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor).
this video deserves so much more credit... what a great exposition of a despot that, perhaps, didnt start out that way or intend to be one... its facinating!
It's controversial topics, his persecution of Chinese isn't because he hate them but as he actually have many rich Chinese clients, he just want to forcefully integrated them into Indonesian society, anti Chinese riots have no exact people to be blame for as it's carry out by the same people who want Suharto to quit but mostly motivated by greed for plunder as people have very bad economy at that moment, if Suharto had his hands on it probably because he wanted scapegoat.
@@apalahartisebuahnama7684 he banked on Muslim and local suspicion of the Chinese community that existed even before the Dutch came to Indonesia. So please look at the clear intend in genocidal terms . The Khmer rouge did not say explicitly that they hated Chinese and Cham Muslim but they did turn a blind eye to those who hated both Chinese and Vietnamese. I don't see political difference or controversy in implicating Suharto's actions as at least genocidal by intent or even means to conduct such a brutal act .
@@tzufbb his act was genocidal but not toward chinese but a political group. That is actually a small part, he banked on muslim and local suspicion of PKI and left militia which also carried out attacks which can be considered genocidal during revolution wars. In fact most of his supporters and associates were chinese catholics. Added to this was the business oligarch he had which were chinese (though also indian and locals).
I know a guy who wrote investigative report on this despot family back in late 90s. He was almost hunted down, if not for the economic crisis that was happening back then and distracted the govenrment focus on critics. How time can change sociopolitical prerogatives over a country over a few decades.
some says supersemar is never found, the order was missing for many years. According to an inside talk ( my family great grandpa was one of the generals), on the supersemar there's an option to return the power to soekarno after indonesia stabilize, but then, soeharto rose as president and purged the generals that upsetted him . which is why debatted that the real supersemar was never found. The next thing is as talked in the video. Suharto viewed as a national hero in Indonesia, and although they knew that he embelzed like billions of dollar, older people like my mum and dad supports him becaue he brings prosperity to Indonesia. They often says like This age is good, but Soehartos era were the best because goverment actually cares for his people. Not mentioned on the biographics, Soeharto had a death squad that purged low level citizens such as crooks, repeated criminals, and oppositions political party/people that threthens Soeharto's tenure. The squad called Petrus, or Penembak Misterius ( Mysterius Shooter). They usually confronts the victim, shot them between the eye and dumps the body in the sewer. People with tatoos in indonesia at that time would be marked as "low level citizen" so most of them removed their tatoo using hot blazing iron their skins. On the last day of suharto, Petrus acts to kill reporters, humatarians and some of the uni student that ensembled the whole demonstrations.
I often look at Nazi and think how cartoonish their atriocities were. They dressed up in fancy coat or uniform, act like intelectuals, yet still go on kiling innocent civilians then i read about Soeharto's, dang that kind of atriocity was closer than i originally thought.
Thank you for the informative videos Simon. I would like to suggest Subhash Chandra Bose for a future episode. His trajectory was very similar to that of Suharto, but a very different legacy. Also, any credible source of information is hard to find.
the decades following independence was rough and bloody. i don't understand anyone who is pro war. i was born towards the end of his era and i still see the repercussions of his hand throughout my childhood. i had a pessimistic outlook on my country and its government as i grew up, as many of my generation. as i grew up into adulthood, i had some hope, ahok, but then he got put into jail for questioning the status quo. so now im more protective of my hope as to not let it float too high up.
Eh, Jokowi's government today have reverse it. With appointment of Andika as top guy at military that means our country would see military industrialists class like in US or Germany and using buzzers to combat fundamentalist Islamists using nationalism and traditions.
If you think today is bad, then i can guarantee you 10-20 years ago was way way much worse. I was born in late 80's, i experienced the 98's financial crisis and riots in Jakarta and the many conflicts across Indonesia that came afterwards (Timor Leste, Sampit, Banyuwangi, Ambon, Poso, etc) you generation Z should be happy that youve never experienced those kind of horrors, and everything has been stable now. We have working goverments, the institutions work as they should be, the public transportations finally reached decent level. Seriously i dont understand why younger generation who have never experienced true hardship ever feel so pessimistic.
Back in the early 2000's i had to line up at 5 am in the morning to get clean water so my family could take bath or cook, back in the early 2000's i was so often got mugged (palak) on public transports by thugs that my buddy advised me to smoke whenever youre outside so you dont become "target". And if you think i lived outside of Java that i experienced that kind of hard dealings, no i was born and grew up in Jakarta, the nation's capital. But that was how things used to be. Harsh.
@@harukrentz435 maybe it's because my generation was brought up by the people who had to live through what you lived through. and even though your generation tried their best so my generation wont experience what you had, your generation still carries that trauma and passed it down to us. telling us to always be on guard, dont trust police, look out for your own family before others etc. technically our country is getting better, but it's still not reach its peak yet, corruption is still the culture in government, plus adding to the fact that my generation has little chance to reach a long term solid living wage still. yeah a lot of us are still pessimistic. you had to survive, and we are trying to live.
The role of the CIA in 1965 is understated. It’s known that the CIA was bombing Indonesia long before Suharto took office. CIA aviator Alan Pope was shot down after bombing a village in Ambon in 1958. This was one of numerous attacks on Indonesia by the US. In 1965 the CIA gave the Indonesian military a list of 5,000 names to assassinated in return for US support. The CIA was so successful in this operation that it became the modus operandi for subsequent US coups. Please refer to the book ‘The Jakarta Method’ by Vincent Bevins.
1. It was stated on 2:45 "General Achmed Sukarno" however Sukarno was not a military leader, moreover a general, more especially during the independence movement of 1945. He had not received any military education in his youth. He was educated in civil engineering, hence he was popularly called Insinyur (Engineer) Sukarno. 2. PKI's popularity has risen steadily during the 1950s. PKI ranked fourth in the 1951 election. It was already a political faction to be reckoned with before the 1959 Presidential Decree. 3. What is a Tefilin? I know that there is a political party called Fretilin in East Timor, but Tefilin?!?
You see the funny thing is as an Indonesian soeharto at the time can do what Venezuela current president did escalate the tension to remain in power. but he decided not to do that and im kinda respect him for that. So does prabowo he was tempted by the usa (said by at the time a USA embassy's worker theres a video about him talking about it quite openly theres a video of him in yt i believe) to claim presidency but he refuses saying theres going to be too much blood (despite him being the leader of an equivalent of KGB/secret police at the time) btw he tried to become a president through the legal way right now. Anyway at 98 theres a certain group trying to ride the wave i wont said the name but he is trying to grab powers but destroyed completely by soeharto before he stepped off powers which im quite gratefull considering he is quite a messed up person right now. After soeharto's fall there are still a lot of shitty representatives in government even to this day. But one by one they are being revealed and im starting to wonder is what he said is true. Even so, even if what he said is true the blood is stiil there anyways and it cant never be washed. Corruptions are still a big issue here and despite him being gone from powers his friends are still here doing oligarchy and tried to resist tooths and nails to keep it so. Atleast we can see it now and dear god i hoped its not another political purge in a soft way thats why even if corruption is the worse i cant never accept death penalty life in prison is more acceptable for me.
...this actually can spawn a short Casual Criminalist episode regarding the reknowned "Petrus" (Penembak Misterius, "Mystery Shooter" in Indonesian) Wonder if anyone wanted to send Simon the script 🤔
Soeharto was a controversial figure. He had saved Indonesia's economy which is slumped with very high inflation (600%) because Soekarno's ego with it's ambitious politics. He also saved Indonesia from communist cout d'etat. I can't imagine, if Indonesia being a communist country like China during Mao Zedong era. But, nobody is perfect, he had a lot of dark sides too, especially in human right violations.
That's why Indonesian currency have many zeroes. I've learned somewhere that Indonesian rupiah used to be pegged as little as 4 per 1 USD before the massive hyperinflation
My family was post to Indonesia 🇮🇩 from 1978 to 1980. My father was an officer in the Australian army. My father attended ceremonies host by Suharto on a number of occasions. My mother met his wife and we have a photo of my mother and President Suharto’s wife and grand daughter
Ah yes the corrupted dictator. He is a Hero for Malaysia, and villain for others. His legacy still exist until now for Indonesian. From his family, ideology, his people, dark deeds, brain wash and propagandas.
History sure is interesting when you look at it from the perspective on another country. I'm from indonesia and I can see why since history was never black and white and it is an honor to see it from others perspective I've heard stories from my father about what they did so it's kinda making me hate him yet I also want to look athim at a different perspective so thanks for the comment you light up my day
Small update: one of Suharto's former son-in-law is now the President-elect of Indonesia, having just won the election by a fair margin. At the time this comment is written, an election dispute resolution trial is currently ongoing at Indonesia's Constitutional Court. The court shall deliver its verdict at around next week.
@@dorkykidleader838 Your talking about Soekarno? Or should i say Kusno? Wasting taxpayers money, 600% inflation, jailing political opponents, event jailing a music group just because they are too western? Lmao
Re Timor-Leste (East Timor) @19:38 you reference "Tefilin"; is that the Indonesian for "Fretilin"? "The Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor ( Portuguese: Frente Revolucionária de Timor-Leste Independente, abbreviated as Fretilin)". Our nearby country picked up their radio broadcasts during the invasion/occupation, and subsequently the refugees on boats on our shores. I was just a child, but I remember it well. @Biographics
I visited Suharto's graveyard temple in 2022 where he, his wife and his whole family lies burried. It's a popular place where Indonesians travel to in tour busses to pay him and his family respect and pray for them in group settings (yasinan).
My grandpa's friend rebelled againts the new order regime by not voting candidate from GOLKAR and then he just disappeared. His location is still unknown untill now.
Can you do the history of The Thunderbirds? The aircraft are always evolving, the story is tragic, decades long, and no, ITS NOT THE DAMN TV SHOW! hahaha
My grandmother loved him so much. She remembered his era as best period on her lifetime with cheap living cost etc besides all abuses. Generally, many older generation adore him but younger generation not so much.
Cheap living cost but with extremly low income. It's funny back in the 90's being civilian service servant (PNS) wasnt attractive at all, now every Indonesian dreamt of being one.
@@harukrentz435 Maybe because PNS not paid so much at that time and until early SBY era. There is a song named "Umar Bakrie" which not relevant again nowadays.
The young ones tend to forget, until they face the similar predicament in their lifetime and use him (or anyone else) as scapegoats to their own problem
Never forget Roger East and the Balibo Five - Roger and two of the Five were Australian (Greg Shackleton and Tony Stewart), and the other three were an Englishman (Brian Peters), a Scotsman (Malcolm Rennie) and a New Zealander (Gary Cunningham), all of them journalists or media technicians reporting on the invasion of East Timor, and all of them murdered at Suharto's orders.
This is so weird I was just reading about his biography on the same day you publish this! Very spot on btw! I love your analysis of communism, nationalism and religion as a continue ideology Indonesia has to this day 👍 amazing work my friend
I grew up near the well where those bodies rested. I also remember stories from my mother's college years, she nearly gave birth to me in the hospital where suharto's assassins did a hit on some person of interest hospitalized there
12:20. This is the important thing. I will tell you a story. Nyoto was the husband of Tien Soeharto cousin. Even Soeharto couldnt save his closest family. The purge was chaotic. Someone in power hate you, and no matter how clean you are, your name will be on the death list, and it is game over for you. Nyoto, was high rank PKI until 1963. He was kicked by Aidit from PKI because he was not Maoist communist. Nyoto, was hated by one of Soeharto general, Soemitro. So, Soemitro excuted him. He didnt need Soeharto permission. Same case, happened all over Indonesia. It was a total chaos. You cant blame Soeharto when he, himself, failed to save his closest family.
I'd just like to say I'm a big fan Simon! Excellent work as always! And speaking as someone who was born in Indonesia, escaped during the last few years of Suharto's rule, I'm amazed if anyone had ever heard about him in the west, let alone know how to describe him and his reign perfectly.
after Suharto stepped down, the Indonesian military reorganized. no more high-ranking officers participate in the government as before. the military junta in Myanmar should learn from the Indonesian army
Half a century ago, I was living in Jakarta, working on an industrial development project, which involved American companies, Indonesian companies, the Indonesian government, and Indonesian politicians. The head of the lead Indonesian company, was the son of a very prosperous Chinese Indonesian businessman. Numerous prosperous Chinese Indonesian business men were falsely accused of being Communists, and their assets taken; many were killed (but not his father). He was reputed to be Suharto's fingerman. His father despised him. His company was in the business of getting graft out of Indonesia and investing it in Europe and Africa. The project ended when the key American company pulled out due to the greed of an Indonesian politician. Also in addition, Suharto's wife, who had a lot of influence over him, had to be paid off. She was known as ten percent Tina.
Indonesian here.... during his reign, all Chinese cultural activities were also banned and freedom of speech was absolutely non-existence. Thank God we didn't fall into long chaos and were able to rise up again after his downfall. Today Indonesia is pretty stable & projected to become the world's 5th largest economy in a couple of decades
In that year of political unrest and an anti-communist emergency, if you have grudge against someone and wanted them dead, the first thing that comes in mind is accusing that person a commie. Only one report away from eliminating someone you don't like over the course of one night. Depending on the authority dispatched in site, some done a pretty good job of not leaving any trace.
I love this channel and have been following for so long. I think there’d be a lot to explore with some 20th century philosophers like Lacan or Foucault or Wittgenstein.
Thousand years of Human civilization seems to disagree with "absolute power corrupt absolutely" as there also people who use it benevolently such as Ceasar, 16th century enlighten despots and Napoleon but I agree that absolute power have dramatical tendency both for good or bad.
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
Check out Squarespace: squarespace.com/BIOGRAPHICS for 10% off on your first purchase.
Greetings from Canada 🇨🇦
Informative as usual. 👍
Btw, I was surprised that there are just a few videos on US presidents. I thought there would be one about Abraham Lincoln. It would be great to see a complete playlist 😁
Sir Douglas Mawson request
‘Outside the bowl of chaos was brimming with drift-snow and as I lay in the sleeping-bag beside my dead companion I wondered how, in such conditions, I would manage to break and pitch camp single-handed. There appeared to be little hope of reaching the Hut, still 100 miles away.’
Intrigued? No, it’s not something out of Lovecraft. It’s actually a diary entry from a very real Antarctic expedition that (by coincidence) was name dropped in Lovecraft’s ‘At the Mountains of Madness’.
Still intrigued? Then let me formally place my request for a Biographics episode on Sir Douglas Mawson, an Australian geologist, explorer, and academic. Also the face on our $100 bill. This groundbreaking expedition is only one event in a very eventful life.
Can you do episodes on some classical composers please, Bach, Vivaldi, Beethoven and Mozart 👍🏽 some fantastic stories to be told
Please do Alexander II of Russia
Suharto was "well-beloved" among the citizen because those who didn't like him just strangely disappeared.
"Piye Kabare? Uenak Jamanku Toh?"
Classic dictator behavior
So baksooo, teng teng teng
@@vinivici6579 Based Suharto
Sounds familiar *cough caugh* china *caugh caugh*
If you look at Indonesia today, you could see that a lot of our issues are a result of Soeharto's policies. Our deep culture of corruption within the government, separatist sentiments in Papua, and a noticeable difference between the development of Java when compared to other provinces. He certainly left his mark on this country...
Yes, it is still not making any sense that this is still happening today especially after the fact that we kept on boasting about how many islands we have and none of them are developed properly, none but java. I mean, borneo along with sumatra are incredibly bigger than any island in indonesia but its land are still mostly empty and under developed.
Thankfully efforts are being made, my hometown pontianak has an international airport now and our commercial port has been bigger than ever but these efforts are painfully very slow to progress especially if you compare to what Jakarta has accomplished. But hey, at least the borneo aint sinking and earthquakes are rare (west borneo had no earthquake at all too and no volcano). I will count my blessing.
It never crossed any of ur mind that building city and any infrastructure inside it will cost a massive amount of money? Money that our government clearly lacking. Even up to this day, many area in java is still very underdeveloped and poor.
Why do u think we can built a big city everywhere when the richest country in the world (US) cant and still have a wide area of poor and underdeveloped region. Even trying to build a single new capital city takes a long time of planning and might bring an inflation crisis.
Correction on the Papua point. While most of the worst abuse that Papuan peoples had suffered did occur during the Suharto years, let's not act like this was caused by him. In reality, the (forced) incorporation of Papua began in 1963 when Indonesia invaded the region, which was still during Sukarno's regime. Sukarno had western countries, like the US, help him out too as American president JFK pressured the Dutch to give up West Papua to Indonesia so that Sukarno can come to America's sphere of influence against the Soviets. So if anything, Suharto's abuse of West Papua was simply a continuation of what Sukarno started. Which unfortunately still continues to this day as the Indonesian military regularly kills Papuan peoples if they even suspect them of being separatists. Some things just don't go away with time, sadly.
@@aldyhabibie9717 Even many regions in java island itself e.g. Tasikmalaya, Trenggalek, Bondowoso, etc are not as developed as Jakarta or any other big cities outside Java Island e.g. Medan, Batam, Makassar, Palembang, etc.
@@lastrationalist7890 Rubbish. Military didn't kill Papuans. Instead, Papuan civilians were held hostage, killed, or even raped by West Papuan rebels. Last year, a Christian mission "Gereja Kemah Injil" was burned (2020). Years before, a village at Nduga was held hostage and teachers were raped by Papuan rebels (2018).
West Papua was indeed part of Indonesia based on "uti possidetis iuris" basis, means that its constitutional territory legally including all of the former Dutch East Indies territory. During the agreement of "Konferensi Meja Bundar" at The Hague in 1949, *Indonesia had agreed to pay all the debts of Dutch East Indies* in exchange of: 1) Indonesia must became United States of Indonesia / federal states, 2) The withdrawal of Dutch troops from Indonesia and 3) The issue of West Papua province would be determined through negotiation between United States of Indonesia and Dutch government within a year after. However, Dutch betrayed its promise. Until 1950, Dutch refused to talk about West Papua province even though Indonesia had to pay all the debts and war damages (Indonesia paid until 2002!). So, in response, Indonesia nationalized many Dutch companies within its territory.
The rebels still exist are because 1) Freeport mine contract is going to be over and some foreign parties are not happy with this condition so they intervene and make instability in Papua, 2) Inequality and mistreatments during Suharto times.
My father used to tell me a story of how PKI members were decapitated by locals just around the corner from my old house. Saying "If you dig up a hole around that area near the fence, I bet you will at least find one skull"
in my father's area PKI members were tied to rock and drowned in the rivers. its not until very recently he's brave enough to tell it. it was a hush hush topic for quite a long whole
Commies get what they deserve.
@@Balthorium That's petty. Maybe most of them had jobs, and families, and decided to be members of a political party that advocates for their interests as workers.
Of course at the time there was a lot of communist revolutions, but most people are not generally violent.
@@fleebertreatise1063 would you say that about SS members?
@@Balthorium No, but do you have evidence that the PKI planned to do a mass execution? You do realize that they were executed in mass based on party affiliation, right? Rationalizing that is not healthy, and it works both ways.
The worst thing during 1965-1966 massacre is, many non-PKI also get executed, it so easy to accuse someone as "PKI", just report to the nearest army outpost (KODIM) call it "X is an PKI member !" just like that, someone will be kidnapped in the middle of the night, tortured and forcefully confessed as "PKI member" and the next morning, he/she is already dead, many people report their neighbour even relatives just because they wanted a revenge or have some problem, not because they're truly PKI member.
Yep, sometimes it just needs to be a gathering of people for the military or common thugs to “collect” them, then torture them, then finally kill and hide the bodies. Happened to my uncle’s father back then.
Don't forget the post mass killings 1968-1975 or Buru Island project, somehow they don't do execution regularly anymore, instead they kidnapped 12.5k alleged communist supporters. They divide them into 3 ranks, A rank will highly get executed, while B and C will work till' the project is over by "opening" Buru Island and installing plantation there.
Yea and most of them are *Javanese* and that's proof he's not racist but just *PURE EVIL*
worst thing ? because killing a PKI member isnt already a "worst thing" ? LOL... what an evil sentence... they were all unarmed and not incline to do any violence. They were slaughtered too..
@@RepublikRakyatNusantarathose are mutually exclusive
Today we have this jokes in Indonesia "Beware of the food peddler in front of your house, it may be Soeharto's agents and secret police coming after you" so Simon make sure to check infront of your house wether you see a fish and chips sellers with walkie talkie
For real you can tell how bad our intelligences are because people recognize their methods.
@@apalahartisebuahnama7684 This is the hard truth, kinda reminds me of when Hitler took a trip around Germany (Or France?) And he counted every single gestapo agents he could find in public, lets just say he counted alot of them.
@@apalahartisebuahnama7684 bjirrr wkwkwkw
@@apalahartisebuahnama7684 ironicly, it turn out to be the most effective way to scare people
Deer 1 calling deer 2 …
The most ironic fact, when Indonesian govt decide to liquidate all the assets owned by his childrens and his cronies due to corruption cases and doing extensive investigation on the allegations that his family + his cronies hid the rest of the money they were siphoned out from the country during his era on a Swiss bank accounts, his family and his former cronies were fighting back with all the remaining power they had. Raising lots of suspicions that even if he's not doing any corruptions like he claimed, his family members and his cronies were doing it on its behalf.
In fact, lots of Indonesians that were grow up troughout his era remembers clearly that some of his childrens is a total infamy, one of his daughters had a very bad habit of frequently doing a shopping spree on Europe. His eldest son is a well known gambler on Las Vegas. The other son trapped on a very embarrasing scandal for divorcing his perfect wife that already with him trough the good and bad times after he got caught by public for cheating with a not-so-famous singer, causing his children from his first wife to went rampage on the most scandalous story ever known. While his youngest son (his most beloved son), had a very infamous crime record, imprisoned for killing a judge that were investigating corruption case involving his family a year or two after his father kicked out from power.
And in some recent elections his family members mainly one of his daughter who used to actively engaging on politics during his father era were trying to return to the politics by endlessly sells the stories about how 'good' the living standards were during his father era. A thing that were booed by many Indonesians who already well remember all of soeharto sins and his family sins towards the country.
Well, in short, he's the most corrupted tyrant the world ever know regardless of his good achievements.
Still better children than Uday Hussein.
Saya harap anda tidak hilang :'(
@@BountyFlamor Not.... much of an achievement.
bakso bakso
Curious question but was the "good" living standards actually a thing or her just bullshiting out of her mouth.
By the way, that well in East Jakarta where the generals' bodies were dumped is now a museum. And it's one creepy museum.
It's located in a somewhat quiet spot of East Jakarta with good amounts of greenery... and an incredibly detailed dioramas of supposed torture.
Can you tell me the name of the Museum?
@@yashvirsinghdalal ID: Museum Pengkhianatan PKI (EN: PKI Betrayal Museum)
Why do you say supposed? Is it not actually torture or are you saying it didn’t happen?
@@ethanallan1254 Forensic reports concluded that the seven officers didn't get tortured. They were stabbed with bayonets instead.
Mantap kanda
Fun fact about the Supersemar, it's still a mystery about the existence of the real letter. The letter that you see is just a copy. Even the 3 letters that were kept by ANRI (The National Archive of Indonesia) were declared 'not authentic'. So not only does Soeharto use the Supersemar to his advantage, but he could even alter the letter for his advantage. So the real content, meaning, or purpose of the letter is still a mystery for us Indonesian to this day.
This Soeharto guy must've been a real political genius, i must say. Always has a trick to get his way to the top and stayed on the top for 32 years nonetheless.
@@aldyhabibie9717 kalo kata temen gw bang, sebenernya "otak" asli kubu suharto itu si ali murtopo
@@bintangfirmansyah1261 ali murtopo gurunya benny moerdani, benny moerdani gurunya opung. see the pattern here
@@dindjarin21 Menteri Ganda.....
@@aldyhabibie9717 it's either that he is genius politician or that we indonesian people were just a little bit too fool for falling into his scheme multiple times.
Great video, as an Indonesian i thank you.
So many people already know that he is a corrupt, but still didn't understand how cruel he is
Back in general elections of 2014 and 2019 many islamist hardlines suddenly became suharto's fanbois. They are Id iots, had they not know the Tanjung Priuk and Talangsari msacres? 😂
@@harukrentz435 if there existed a more corrupt and ideologically bankrupt political movement than that of the communist in the last century, it has to be political Islam.
Its one of the best platform for the least talented, zero skilled, clueless moral hypocrites to bid for political power.
Their claims of the right to rule, often by ridding rough shot over anything seen as an alternative idea to that of theirs is seemingly being able to communicate directly with god.
They are always very sure of what, who, why and when god hates, forbids, demands or is condemning to hell.
Predictably one of their fundamental political doctrine is their leadership is beyond reproach nor bound by any real accountability.
The moral posturing and pretense of religious piousness of this political movement does not translate nor manifest itself in actions of their administrations or governments they run.
They are often as corrupt and authoritarian if not more than some of the worst communist dictatorship.
@@harukrentz435 Well there isn't real friend or enemy in politics
His doctrine lives to this day, many people I know still believes in his doctrine
About PKI?
Yes especially Chinese Ethnic, Suharto use the Chinese Ethnic as a Scapegoat, saying that Chinese Ethnic are the one who cause Economic Down, and the result was 1998 Crisis.
@@lan8401 It's funny though. Try saying "You're a Communist" to a Taiwanese (yes, chinese ethnic) at that time, they'll beat you up 🤣
@@lan8401 To be honest, many ethnic chinese indeed benefited during his regime. Nowadays chinese conglomerates in Indonesia still can trace their growth to Soeharto's Era
@@josephberthier3360 their origin came from the colonial resistance era tho. they are the ones who smuggled weapons to our country risking their stable life of being merchants (their connections with soeharto also came from this time). heck most of the money making national industry made by them (like the cement industry, steel industry etc), there are books about it too. the propaganda of racism is like a custom made sword purposefully aimed to check on those conglomerates from becoming too powerful and takeover his power.
their family can still keep growing to this day because they are smart businessmen. not that i like that they are the powerful ones cause they are also the greedy exploiters that lead to many environmental problems in indonesia today. but if there is one thing i can think is good about them is they are smart at business and not incompetent unlike soeharto's children and cronies who can make cashcows like pertamina or national airline industry (in an airline market boom) a failing business.
in conclusion i prefer a greedy competent people rather than incompetent greedy bastards like soeharto and his cronies.
as an American living in Indonesia since 2007, i can say this is a quality discussion by the author Arnando Teodorsno and presented by Simon Whistler- of a complicated, confusing, and often brutal period in Indonesian history.
what is confusing ? the fact that CIA and the US governements pushed and helped suharto to slaughter 1 million people and assisted clapping to the confinement in "re-education camps" (read concentrament camps) of other 2 million people ? Or this was GOOD just because they were all dangerous communists ? so "communism" is dangerous, and need to be ended with any possible mean, including terrorism, mass murder and slaughter, while any eventual violence committed by communists has to be violently destroyed ? to the point of killing million people ? you yankees are fat hypocrites
1:15 - Chapter 1 - The future president new clothes
3:10 - Chapter 2 - The making of a general
5:45 - Chapter 3 - Fence sitting
8:20 - Mid roll ads
9:45 - Chapter 4 - Years of living dangerously
12:15 - Chapter 5 - 3 marches to power
14:10 - Chapter 6 - Indonesia new order
16:40 - Chapter 7 - Deep pockets
18:25 - Chapter 8 - Stick & carrot
20:05 - Chapter 9 - Downfall
- Chapter 10 -
Some mistakes:
1. One word name is/was not common in many Indonesians, but common in many Javans. Although, more than half of us are Javan...
2. Soekarno was never a general, at least militarily. There is no record at all about his military record... Btw, the name Achmed rarely used and many consider that Achmed part of his name was only used to earn foreign support.
3. ASEAN does not equivalent of NATO in the region, it's an economic pact that closer to EU or EEC.
4. At Soeharto's downfall, BJ Habibie wasn't his deputy, but his Vice President.
Btw, thanks for bringing this topic in your channel.
4. 'deputy' means 'second in command', same as 'vice' in vice president.
The "Ahmed" in front of Soekarno's name was invented by foreign journalist. Many were confused because he only had one word for his name, hence why they add "Ahmed". Soekarno himself often questioned the addindum and talked about how unneccesary it was, hence why he never used "Ahmed". Different to Soeharto who was more than happy to use "Muhammad" in front of his name, that his official name is H.M (Haji Muhammad) Soeharto.
@@harukrentz435 Soeharto would happily use 'Muhammad' in his name to enforce his image as conservative Muslim's friend, complete opposite of what he did in 1984.
Correction, only 40% of Indonesian are Javanese. In addition, 15% are sundanese and 35% are anyone else
@@risannd yeah he did that at the end of his rule to burnish his islamic credentials.
I think you should go for a video about BJ Habibie too: a top rank aviation engineer and inventor in Europe who became the president of Indonesia by "accident" after Soeharto's downfall, raised IDR value up to Rp 6000/USD, for only to be called off by the parliament after only nine months in the office
The best Minister of Technology and Research, a proper scientist, and an overall agreeable figure.
From the worst and shittiest president we ever have to one of the best president we have.
yes BJ Habibie was a very underrated hero an unsung hero, even though he did many things to save our economy from the brink of total collapse but the people at that time loath him very much because of his connection with Suharto, as Habibie is the "Anak Emas"
kalo nilai tukar rupiah segitu gw udah punya ps5 kyknya
@@naseh446 tapi ingat, nilai uang tidak sama dengan kuantitasnya, jika anda punya gaji 6 juta sekarang, terus nilai rupiah jadi 7.500 rp / dollar, nanti kemungkinan besar gaji anda turun jadi 3 juta
I spent my childhood in the later days of New Order. The education system puts heavy emphasis on obedience, and there was a time the English language was banned. Businesses (inc my parents') that use English names have to rebrand to Indonesian names. Then there was the discrimination against Indo-Chinese
I think the push for more indonesian language is not unique to Soeharto's Indonesia. The same thing also happens in other countries, such as turkey, or even democratic France and Canada (Quebec)
Huh? if anything english language was being promoted heavily on his last few years in the power. Take Hong Kong movies for example, all of them were dubbed into english, instead of Indonesian. I still remember feeling disappointed because the eng dub actors lack of emotion lol
@@harukrentz435 English was not promoted heavily, the reason you watched HK movies in English, because it was pirated and meant for population with no Chinese ethnics like Europe. In Indonesia HK movies was dubbed into Mandarin not English and subtitle in Indonesian! You sound like you know Indonesia very little. LOL!
Here in Indonesia, we have this song
"The Father of Development, Suharto"
Sujud kami bagiMu yang Esa
Terima kasih atas karunia
Sandang pangan, pembangunan
Kau limpahkan bagi negeri Indonesia
Seorang bapak yang telah Kau cipta
Tuk membimbing negeri tercinta Wibawanya dan senyumnya
Memberi ceria wajah Indonesia
Kepadamu Bapak kami Soeharto
Terima kasih dari rakyat semua Dibelakangmu kami siaga
Demi kejayaan Indonesia!
Kepadamu Bapak kami Soeharto
Terima kasih dari rakyat semua Didadamu kami serahkan Bapak pembangunan Indonesia!
Waw ada mimin IH. Mimin Leon ikut meluncur jadinya🇩🇪.
wkwk
Why not Sukarno? Was he not a great leader and a founding father of Indonesia?
@@leobuscaglia5576 pjm Soekarno
@@leobuscaglia5576 he is not a great leader in economics
Fun fact: nobody actually knows the actual full details of the contents of the supersemar letter, due to there only being 5 witnesses, including suharto, and all of them gave contradicting statements regarding the contents of the letter, and the one on display in the presidential palace in bogor is being disputed to being the actual letter.
Wow, Soeharto? I didnt expect this. My uncle was actually one of the muscle man who kidnap his opponent, and i have a chinese friend in high scholl that part of her family killed by mobs in 1998
And now Soeharto's right hand, pak Prabowo is your next president. Quite ironic, isn't it?
Reading about the mass killings of 1965-66 is horrific. So is the Occupation of East Timor.
This guy has so much blood on his hands (not to mention being incredibly corrupt as well).
And the USA backed him of course (even helping with the killings indirectly.
Just a tragedy all around.
I wish he had spoken more about U.S involvement. It's so relevant to what we're doing now all over the place, and if more people knew about it more people would be against it.
Suharto's hands are bloody until the early 1990s for as far as I know:
• 1965-66: the mass killings
• 1975: East Timor occupation
1970s-1980s: Mysterious Shootings (ID: Petrus/Penembak Misterius, misusing the Indonesian pronounciation of Peter), a series of extrajudicial killings of street criminals
• 1984: Massacre over at Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta. Over 30 people were killed after a certain fracas between on-duty soldiers and local community members and locals' opposition against the regime led to a bloodshed
• 1989: Massacre in Talangsari, East Lampung. Also caused by locals' opposition against the regime
• 1991: Massacre in Santa Cruz cemetery, Dili, East Timor.
In his last years of power, Suharto went soft towards the up and coming urban middle class with conservative Muslim upbringing by performing the Hajj to Mecca (he was believed to practice a syncretistic Javanese belief system named Kejawen up until this point), establishing the Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals' Association (ID: Ikatan Cendekiawan Muslim Indonesia), headed by his future successor Habibie, and generally being a bit less hostile towards conservative Muslims, a complete 180⁰ compared to what he did in 1984 and 1989.
@@krisniznik3953 There have been speculations about this, at least in 1965 where it was alleged that one of the higher ups in PKI (the Indonesian Communist Party) was a CIA mole.
@@TwentyNinerR ironically he prefer Muhammadiyah which is more puritanical than traditional, moderate NU.
Sounds like an ‘Into the Shadows’ video idea.
This biography missed quite an important part
.
Many of his corruptions were only revealed to the public on late 80's, which coincided to the collapse of USSR. Suharto was indeed supported by the CIA in order to prevent Indonesia from falling into communism. But once the biggest communist player in the world (USSR) collapsed, the US didn't need Suharto anymore. There are not few who believe that his downfall was orchestrated by CIA.
He was more or less, the Indonesian counterpart of Francisco Franco (whom was another authoritarian leader who used the threat of communism as a leverage to keep him on power). But of course the difference was that Franco actually remained on power until his death.
Yeah same as Mobutu. Soviet collapsed and US stop supporting their puppet dictator regimes.
*My Mom Uncle critized Soharto*
*two weeks later* Huh He just disappear.
That was a lie (He just had to remove his newpaper company) , but also true. Many critics of Soharto just disappear or exile to Island of Buru. and yes Soharto's family does infact committed corruption. Much of their property as well as their land is from the government and created by the government and the income from that property goes to their families not the government, like example Taman mini Indonesia. Now our government is still struggling with the dispute and trying to get it back.
I am feeling very grateful that this channel managed to make this video, especially since the records of his government is rather scarce or was destroyed on purpose.
What's hilarious is that he condemned Communism but his policies are similar to that very same idea he condemned.
This is very true. It's like a copycat without mentioning the name. Just a fork
@@sukmapradana7812 You are wrong, it wasn't about atheism! CIA was behind the coup and the muslims were their tools to achieve their goal. Btw did you there are many muslim, christians, monks and other believers in China? Don't let yourself brainwashed by western propaganda!
He replicated the cultural revolution in china. But “democracy” version
Just one correction, while initially, Japanese invaders were might have welcomed as liberators, it was completely untrue during the rest of the Japanese occupation of Indonesia because approximately 4 million Indonesians died between 1942 and 1945 as a result of famine and forced labour.
My great grandfather was a PKI supporter and one of the victims of the anti-communist purge. He was arrested and never seen again. We don't know when and where he died, where he was burried, he was practically gone.
KETURUNAN PKI!!!!!
I've been waiting for this since the Ferdinand Marcos episode.
Good work, Simon!
I still remember what my mom said to me when i was 12 y.o
When she was a kid, there were some guys giving away the bread and skimmed milk. If you reject it, you still alive. If you accept it, you'll be dead soon by some unknown group. Some of the neighbor accepted it, tomorrow her house got raided by the unknown group. And i still remember that if someone choosing other than golkar during election day, you'll be dead. Weirdly enough, one of her mom's friend got raided.
I can't really tell bout the the victims there. Cuz they were all gone
Roti sama susu? Maksudnya apa ya kalo terima itu? .-. Jujur baru denger ada ini
Kalo nerima roti sama susu kental manis dari orang gak dikenal itu nanti dicap sekeluarga menganut 'sebelah kiri'
@@faridarridho8620 hah kok bisa :”)
@@lucky360pride berbagi itu indah :)
Kemusuk, Argomulyo, Sedayu, Bantul, Yogyakarta. I live about 3km from there (still same village). There is still a strong presence of Soeharto era in the area
Back in mid 2000's lot of truck and pick up cars with Soeharto's photo on it with the famous slogan "Piye kabare, penak zaman ku tokh?" 😂
Need one on Gen. Winfield Scott, or Gen. John Pershing, two generals who had great careers but not in America’s most popular wars
Norman Schwarzkopf would be another good general to due.
Winfield Scott’s march on Mexico City is the he greatest military achievement of any us general. Part of this may be due to Santa Anna genuinely being so inept. For every napoleon there is an Austrian general so inept the guy across from him looks like the goat.
Any chance of a bio on Irish revolutionary, Michael Collins? I think your viewers would find his life very interesting
Agree! Michael Collins was a very important figure!
Tom Barry would be a good bio as well as John Connolly.
@Leo the British-Filipino definitely
The Big Fella. Yes, I would love to see one.
Big fan of his brother, Phil.
You understand that what happened in East Timor is considered genocide as well as what happened in 1965 right ? And the U.S backed most of Suharto's actions ?
For the sake of combatting communism ofc, 1965 genocide was against Maoist PKI and in East Timor against Fretilin which was commie sympathizers.
U.S does not care about who theyre supporting even if its a dictator like tyrant that is no different from mao as long as its against communism.
Indonesia was not the only country that had to deal with coups from the army, there were also countries like Brasil, Argentina, Pakistan, Myanmar and so on.
Wasnt expecting a video about Indonessia's 2nd president, but finally a video about my country.
I thought that gonna first president. Especially interacting with John F. Kennedy before his death.
It fills that description, you need to experience that by living in Indonesia at that time.
He's an Indonesian's Mao, his way of doing things like giving the poor food to eat as a way of gaining sympathy in countryside. His propaganda movie, is very similar to Mao's version.
In another way, however, his willingness to liberalize the economy through the policies set upon by the "Berkeley Mafia" shows hints of Deng and his policies of creating SEZs to better raise China's own economy.
At least he feed lot of people. Cant say the same about ANY Republican presidenta
@@eavyeavy2864 Are you seriously comparing one of the most corrupt, bloody authoritarians with Republican presidents? His legacies still brings problems to Indonesian even until today, 24 years after his rule.
@@epg96 In Suharto's era, the only prosperity he brought was in Jakarta. That's why we're seeing massive difference in wealth in each cities
Hell,he lowkey look like Mao,which is ironic considering that he's anti communist
I'm saying this as an indonesian
There is a conspiracy theory of Soeharto is the one who arrange the 1965 coup, there is just so many things that is so convenient for Soeharto, here some that I found interesting:
-He knows some of the officer who do the coup
-Ahmad Yani is supposedly, the candidate for the next president and he and Soeharto has some rivalry
-If it is indeed a PKI plot, why is there no mass armed movement? Considering that PKI is a massive party with millions of members with alot of sympathizers in the military, they could easily stage a rebellion and the army cant do anything because they are paralyzed.
Those are just some points that supported Soeharto's involvement.
Sadly no clear evidence tho.
This is seriously some Palpatine level plotting
It was so succesful that CIA used it as textbook for military coups in Chile and Brazil.
He was not palpatine, Pater Beek was palpatine in the shadow.
Yes
@@abcddef2112 Joop Beek was nowhere near as influential as Palpatine was.
@@nathanhosea489 yeah he was only influential in the beginning of Suharto reign.
"Do not be deceived by an orator, because of his speech, before there is evidence of his actions"
- Abdul Malik Karim Amrullah Hamka (Indonesian Islamic leader)
19:38 A minor correction: the name of the movement was FRETILIN (Frente Revolucionária de Timor-Leste Independente or Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor).
Yeah and not mentioning UDT or APODETI, considering FRETILIN was at civil war with them.
I am Indonesian, & have been waiting you to do a podcast on this regime. Thanks a lot Simon!
I've been waiting for this a long time now
this video deserves so much more credit... what a great exposition of a despot that, perhaps, didnt start out that way or intend to be one... its facinating!
Rest in peace to those that passed away.
Always appreciate your clips, need to catch up on all of them. Just as I finished this, you posted a mega projects clip lol.
Thank you for this video. My grandfather was murdered and my family never talks about it. This was very enlightening. Thanks
You didn't even mention once his persecution of the Chinese community as well as the 1998 anti Chinese violence in particular
It's controversial topics, his persecution of Chinese isn't because he hate them but as he actually have many rich Chinese clients, he just want to forcefully integrated them into Indonesian society, anti Chinese riots have no exact people to be blame for as it's carry out by the same people who want Suharto to quit but mostly motivated by greed for plunder as people have very bad economy at that moment, if Suharto had his hands on it probably because he wanted scapegoat.
@@apalahartisebuahnama7684 he banked on Muslim and local suspicion of the Chinese community that existed even before the Dutch came to Indonesia. So please look at the clear intend in genocidal terms . The Khmer rouge did not say explicitly that they hated Chinese and Cham Muslim but they did turn a blind eye to those who hated both Chinese and Vietnamese. I don't see political difference or controversy in implicating Suharto's actions as at least genocidal by intent or even means to conduct such a brutal act .
Because it was not just chinese, in fact the majority and he did mention were balinese and javanese.
@@tzufbb his act was genocidal but not toward chinese but a political group. That is actually a small part, he banked on muslim and local suspicion of PKI and left militia which also carried out attacks which can be considered genocidal during revolution wars. In fact most of his supporters and associates were chinese catholics. Added to this was the business oligarch he had which were chinese (though also indian and locals).
A biography on Sasaki Kojiro would be much appreciated. Another great one!
yep i grailed him and it was worth it and also his np5 dominates all riders
@@retrosepticz5846 l m a o
We don’t really know much about him largely because he isn’t thought to have actually existed
i forgot this wasnt fgo video sorry
Please make a video about Park Chung Hee at Rhee Syngman, both South Korean Dictators
Yes, he's the South Korean Version of Soeharto? 🤔
@@InspectHistory Syngman Rhee was like Suharto, very corrupt and beholden to the Americans. Park Chung-hee was more like Lee Kuan Yew.
I know a guy who wrote investigative report on this despot family back in late 90s. He was almost hunted down, if not for the economic crisis that was happening back then and distracted the govenrment focus on critics. How time can change sociopolitical prerogatives over a country over a few decades.
some says supersemar is never found, the order was missing for many years. According to an inside talk ( my family great grandpa was one of the generals), on the supersemar there's an option to return the power to soekarno after indonesia stabilize, but then, soeharto rose as president and purged the generals that upsetted him . which is why debatted that the real supersemar was never found. The next thing is as talked in the video.
Suharto viewed as a national hero in Indonesia, and although they knew that he embelzed like billions of dollar, older people like my mum and dad supports him becaue he brings prosperity to Indonesia. They often says like This age is good, but Soehartos era were the best because goverment actually cares for his people.
Not mentioned on the biographics, Soeharto had a death squad that purged low level citizens such as crooks, repeated criminals, and oppositions political party/people that threthens Soeharto's tenure. The squad called Petrus, or Penembak Misterius ( Mysterius Shooter). They usually confronts the victim, shot them between the eye and dumps the body in the sewer. People with tatoos in indonesia at that time would be marked as "low level citizen" so most of them removed their tatoo using hot blazing iron their skins. On the last day of suharto, Petrus acts to kill reporters, humatarians and some of the uni student that ensembled the whole demonstrations.
As a hero? Not officially recognised, but some people might look at him like a saviour, bringer of prosperity.
Enak jaman ku toh ?? 😂
Lah di sini juga bang
I often look at Nazi and think how cartoonish their atriocities were. They dressed up in fancy coat or uniform, act like intelectuals, yet still go on kiling innocent civilians then i read about Soeharto's, dang that kind of atriocity was closer than i originally thought.
Thank you for the informative videos Simon. I would like to suggest Subhash Chandra Bose for a future episode. His trajectory was very similar to that of Suharto, but a very different legacy. Also, any credible source of information is hard to find.
the decades following independence was rough and bloody. i don't understand anyone who is pro war. i was born towards the end of his era and i still see the repercussions of his hand throughout my childhood. i had a pessimistic outlook on my country and its government as i grew up, as many of my generation. as i grew up into adulthood, i had some hope, ahok, but then he got put into jail for questioning the status quo. so now im more protective of my hope as to not let it float too high up.
Eh, Jokowi's government today have reverse it. With appointment of Andika as top guy at military that means our country would see military industrialists class like in US or Germany and using buzzers to combat fundamentalist Islamists using nationalism and traditions.
If you think today is bad, then i can guarantee you 10-20 years ago was way way much worse. I was born in late 80's, i experienced the 98's financial crisis and riots in Jakarta and the many conflicts across Indonesia that came afterwards (Timor Leste, Sampit, Banyuwangi, Ambon, Poso, etc) you generation Z should be happy that youve never experienced those kind of horrors, and everything has been stable now. We have working goverments, the institutions work as they should be, the public transportations finally reached decent level. Seriously i dont understand why younger generation who have never experienced true hardship ever feel so pessimistic.
Back in the early 2000's i had to line up at 5 am in the morning to get clean water so my family could take bath or cook, back in the early 2000's i was so often got mugged (palak) on public transports by thugs that my buddy advised me to smoke whenever youre outside so you dont become "target". And if you think i lived outside of Java that i experienced that kind of hard dealings, no i was born and grew up in Jakarta, the nation's capital. But that was how things used to be. Harsh.
@@harukrentz435 maybe it's because my generation was brought up by the people who had to live through what you lived through. and even though your generation tried their best so my generation wont experience what you had, your generation still carries that trauma and passed it down to us. telling us to always be on guard, dont trust police, look out for your own family before others etc. technically our country is getting better, but it's still not reach its peak yet, corruption is still the culture in government, plus adding to the fact that my generation has little chance to reach a long term solid living wage still. yeah a lot of us are still pessimistic. you had to survive, and we are trying to live.
The role of the CIA in 1965 is understated. It’s known that the CIA was bombing Indonesia long before Suharto took office. CIA aviator Alan Pope was shot down after bombing a village in Ambon in 1958. This was one of numerous attacks on Indonesia by the US.
In 1965 the CIA gave the Indonesian military a list of 5,000 names to assassinated in return for US support. The CIA was so successful in this operation that it became the modus operandi for subsequent US coups. Please refer to the book ‘The Jakarta Method’ by Vincent Bevins.
1. It was stated on 2:45 "General Achmed Sukarno" however Sukarno was not a military leader, moreover a general, more especially during the independence movement of 1945. He had not received any military education in his youth. He was educated in civil engineering, hence he was popularly called Insinyur (Engineer) Sukarno.
2. PKI's popularity has risen steadily during the 1950s. PKI ranked fourth in the 1951 election. It was already a political faction to be reckoned with before the 1959 Presidential Decree.
3. What is a Tefilin? I know that there is a political party called Fretilin in East Timor, but Tefilin?!?
You see the funny thing is as an Indonesian soeharto at the time can do what Venezuela current president did escalate the tension to remain in power. but he decided not to do that and im kinda respect him for that.
So does prabowo he was tempted by the usa (said by at the time a USA embassy's worker theres a video about him talking about it quite openly theres a video of him in yt i believe) to claim presidency but he refuses saying theres going to be too much blood (despite him being the leader of an equivalent of KGB/secret police at the time) btw he tried to become a president through the legal way right now.
Anyway at 98 theres a certain group trying to ride the wave i wont said the name but he is trying to grab powers but destroyed completely by soeharto before he stepped off powers which im quite gratefull considering he is quite a messed up person right now.
After soeharto's fall there are still a lot of shitty representatives in government even to this day. But one by one they are being revealed and im starting to wonder is what he said is true. Even so, even if what he said is true the blood is stiil there anyways and it cant never be washed.
Corruptions are still a big issue here and despite him being gone from powers his friends are still here doing oligarchy and tried to resist tooths and nails to keep it so. Atleast we can see it now and dear god i hoped its not another political purge in a soft way thats why even if corruption is the worse i cant never accept death penalty life in prison is more acceptable for me.
...this actually can spawn a short Casual Criminalist episode regarding the reknowned "Petrus" (Penembak Misterius, "Mystery Shooter" in Indonesian)
Wonder if anyone wanted to send Simon the script 🤔
Soeharto was a controversial figure. He had saved Indonesia's economy which is slumped with very high inflation (600%) because Soekarno's ego with it's ambitious politics. He also saved Indonesia from communist cout d'etat. I can't imagine, if Indonesia being a communist country like China during Mao Zedong era. But, nobody is perfect, he had a lot of dark sides too, especially in human right violations.
That's why Indonesian currency have many zeroes. I've learned somewhere that Indonesian rupiah used to be pegged as little as 4 per 1 USD before the massive hyperinflation
i would recommand you have look on this book " The Jakarta Method".
Communist coup was just false flag to purge Soekarno, Army Generals and Communist Party at the same time.
@@bunnyfreakztrue 😢 is it th cia?
Have you guys ever done a biographics on Dutch artist Piet Mondrian? Would love to see that!
Simon, your video are honestly amazingly well done. Thank you for the years of entertainment.
Hey Simon can you do a future Bio on Voltaire?
My family was post to Indonesia 🇮🇩 from 1978 to 1980. My father was an officer in the Australian army. My father attended ceremonies host by Suharto on a number of occasions. My mother met his wife and we have a photo of my mother and President Suharto’s wife and grand daughter
Cool
That granddaughter was caught using narcotics and having sex parties but was released anyway because their family is too powerful.
Ah yes the corrupted dictator. He is a Hero for Malaysia, and villain for others. His legacy still exist until now for Indonesian. From his family, ideology, his people, dark deeds, brain wash and propagandas.
History sure is interesting when you look at it from the perspective on another country. I'm from indonesia and I can see why since history was never black and white and it is an honor to see it from others perspective
I've heard stories from my father about what they did so it's kinda making me hate him yet I also want to look athim at a different perspective so thanks for the comment you light up my day
How can he's a hero for Malaysians? Was it because he send voluntary teachers there?
@@apalahartisebuahnama7684 No, but because he ended the Konfrontasi war which was started by Sukarno.
@@ezrathegreatconqueror And a 'hero' for indonesians too in this context since he ended up a wasteful and useless war
I dont understand why he is a hero of Malaysia despite he condemmed malaysia independence
Small update: one of Suharto's former son-in-law is now the President-elect of Indonesia, having just won the election by a fair margin.
At the time this comment is written, an election dispute resolution trial is currently ongoing at Indonesia's Constitutional Court. The court shall deliver its verdict at around next week.
Thank you for bringing up one of our Presidents. Although, he was among those prolific ones. I could say you are good at telling his history life
You should regard soeharto not as president but a corrupt despot
@@dorkykidleader838 Your talking about Soekarno? Or should i say Kusno? Wasting taxpayers money, 600% inflation, jailing political opponents, event jailing a music group just because they are too western? Lmao
Re Timor-Leste (East Timor) @19:38 you reference "Tefilin"; is that the Indonesian for "Fretilin"? "The Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor ( Portuguese: Frente Revolucionária de Timor-Leste Independente, abbreviated as Fretilin)". Our nearby country picked up their radio broadcasts during the invasion/occupation, and subsequently the refugees on boats on our shores. I was just a child, but I remember it well. @Biographics
Likely a spelling error, because us Indonesians refer to it as Fretilin.
Very informative and entertaining as usual. I'd like to see one on Carl von Clausewitz, one of the greatest military minds in history.
I visited Suharto's graveyard temple in 2022 where he, his wife and his whole family lies burried. It's a popular place where Indonesians travel to in tour busses to pay him and his family respect and pray for them in group settings (yasinan).
Anything with "New Order" or "New Deal" in the title , run and never look back.
Some videos on Irish Independence and thirst for reunification/ or Welsh demands for independence would be awesome.
My grandpa's friend rebelled againts the new order regime by not voting candidate from GOLKAR and then he just disappeared. His location is still unknown untill now.
Can you do the history of The Thunderbirds?
The aircraft are always evolving, the story is tragic, decades long, and no, ITS NOT THE DAMN TV SHOW! hahaha
OMG I never expect to have his biography on this channel
My grandmother loved him so much. She remembered his era as best period on her lifetime with cheap living cost etc besides all abuses. Generally, many older generation adore him but younger generation not so much.
Cheap living cost but with extremly low income. It's funny back in the 90's being civilian service servant (PNS) wasnt attractive at all, now every Indonesian dreamt of being one.
@@harukrentz435 Maybe because PNS not paid so much at that time and until early SBY era. There is a song named "Umar Bakrie" which not relevant again nowadays.
Ah the Iwan fals song?!
@@riswanda2620 it is
The young ones tend to forget, until they face the similar predicament in their lifetime and use him (or anyone else) as scapegoats to their own problem
Never forget Roger East and the Balibo Five - Roger and two of the Five were Australian (Greg Shackleton and Tony Stewart), and the other three were an Englishman (Brian Peters), a Scotsman (Malcolm Rennie) and a New Zealander (Gary Cunningham), all of them journalists or media technicians reporting on the invasion of East Timor, and all of them murdered at Suharto's orders.
This is so weird I was just reading about his biography on the same day you publish this! Very spot on btw! I love your analysis of communism, nationalism and religion as a continue ideology Indonesia has to this day 👍 amazing work my friend
I grew up near the well where those bodies rested. I also remember stories from my mother's college years, she nearly gave birth to me in the hospital where suharto's assassins did a hit on some person of interest hospitalized there
12:20. This is the important thing. I will tell you a story. Nyoto was the husband of Tien Soeharto cousin. Even Soeharto couldnt save his closest family. The purge was chaotic. Someone in power hate you, and no matter how clean you are, your name will be on the death list, and it is game over for you. Nyoto, was high rank PKI until 1963. He was kicked by Aidit from PKI because he was not Maoist communist. Nyoto, was hated by one of Soeharto general, Soemitro. So, Soemitro excuted him. He didnt need Soeharto permission. Same case, happened all over Indonesia. It was a total chaos. You cant blame Soeharto when he, himself, failed to save his closest family.
I served with Sukarno’s grandson. He was a US Marine.
I'd just like to say I'm a big fan Simon! Excellent work as always! And speaking as someone who was born in Indonesia, escaped during the last few years of Suharto's rule, I'm amazed if anyone had ever heard about him in the west, let alone know how to describe him and his reign perfectly.
Can you do a bio about Antonio Oliveira Salazar, the master mind of the Estado Novo Europe longest dictatorship.
This is someone I knew next to nothing about. Good job.
i've been waiting for this biographic a long time
Biographics, can you please do a biography of Britain's first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole?
after Suharto stepped down, the Indonesian military reorganized. no more high-ranking officers participate in the government as before. the military junta in Myanmar should learn from the Indonesian army
Half a century ago, I was living in Jakarta, working on an industrial development project, which involved American companies, Indonesian companies, the Indonesian government, and Indonesian politicians. The head of the lead Indonesian company, was the son of a very prosperous Chinese Indonesian businessman. Numerous prosperous Chinese Indonesian business men were falsely accused of being Communists, and their assets taken; many were killed (but not his father). He was reputed to be Suharto's fingerman. His father despised him. His company was in the business of getting graft out of Indonesia and investing it in Europe and Africa. The project ended when the key American company pulled out due to the greed of an Indonesian politician. Also in addition, Suharto's wife, who had a lot of influence over him, had to be paid off. She was known as ten percent Tina.
You did el Che, Castro, Trujillo and papa doc. DR Cuba and Haití but you haven't done one on a Puerto Rican may I recommend Albizu Campos
Love the many Whistler channels,better enjoyed when fast forward to the end and press cancel then replay, uninterrupted viewing for all 🙂
Indonesian people: *ask why is Suharto still a president*
Suharto: "that's so weird everyone just disappear"
Simon do a biographics on Tarrare. I feel you would do his story justice.
Oh boy, it's controversial dictator time.
Indonesian here.... during his reign, all Chinese cultural activities were also banned and freedom of speech was absolutely non-existence. Thank God we didn't fall into long chaos and were able to rise up again after his downfall. Today Indonesia is pretty stable & projected to become the world's 5th largest economy in a couple of decades
Hi, I'm from Indonesia. I want to thank you for making this video. Sure there are some misspelled words, but overall it's a great video.
would love to see an episode about Flavius Belisarius or either Justinian the Great their life is nothing short of something straight out of a movie.
What about Biggus Dickus?
Wait, ASEAN is not the asian equivalent of NATO but more the asian one for the EU.
In that year of political unrest and an anti-communist emergency, if you have grudge against someone and wanted them dead, the first thing that comes in mind is accusing that person a commie. Only one report away from eliminating someone you don't like over the course of one night. Depending on the authority dispatched in site, some done a pretty good job of not leaving any trace.
CIA said, "Our Indonesia Ally" during cold war in 1965. Anyone can name, who are they, "Our Indonesian Ally"?
You're wonderful Simon!
I love this channel and have been following for so long. I think there’d be a lot to explore with some 20th century philosophers like Lacan or Foucault or Wittgenstein.
I’d like to see an episode on Lee Kuan Yew, the founder of Singapore 🇸🇬
Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and brings with it absolute insanity...
Thousand years of Human civilization seems to disagree with "absolute power corrupt absolutely" as there also people who use it benevolently such as Ceasar, 16th century enlighten despots and Napoleon but I agree that absolute power have dramatical tendency both for good or bad.
Yeah like CIA
There is no corruption. My new American friends just happened to introduce me to this concept called "Lobbying".
Allegedly.
In my opinion.