Indonesia 1976: Challenges to Suharto's Authority

Abstract

IN THE PAST ten years, the foundation of military rule in Indonesia appears to have been set in concrete. On that foundation sits a structure-the New Order regime-made of less certain materials. Less certain still is the position of the architect and chief builder, President Suharto, who confronts a growing number of detractors from both within and outside the regime. Suharto's position in the New Order has been based on a number of factors: his leadership at a time of national crisis in 1965-66; his commitment to a central political and governmental role for the Armed Forces; his success in bringing Indonesia out of the economic chaos inherited from President Sukarno and outside the regime. Suharto's position in the New Order has been based on a number of factors: his leadership at a time of national crisis in 1965-66; his commitment to a central political and governmental role for the Armed Forces; his success in bringing Indonesia out of the economic chaos inherited from President Sukarno and in promoting economic growth during the first Five Year Plan; and his willingness to distribute the lion's share of the benefits of that growth among his supporters and potential opponents in the military and, to a lesser extent, civilian bureaucracies. Until 1973 Suharto seemed the master of Indonesian politics, dependent to be sure on continuation of the main lines of previous policies, but able to isolate and overcome his enemies, to maintain a broad intra-military consensus, and to govern the civilian sector (communists aside) with a relative minimum of direct coercion. In the fall of that year, General Sumitro, then head of the powerful Command for the Restoration of Security and Order (Kopkamtib) and Deputy Commander of the Armed Forces, mounted what was certainly a challenge to Presidential personal assistant Major General Ali Murtopo and perhaps to President Suharto as weJl. When student demonstrations in January 1974 turned into urban riots, Sumitro was forced to resign, students and intellectuals were arrested, and several newspapers were