Soldier, Savior, Strongman, Crook

        Regionally, Suharto's dictatorship removed Indonesia as a potential source of turmoil, allowing vulnerable neighbors Singapore and Malaysia to develop into economic dynamos. His commitment to regional cooperation led to the creation of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). "When Indonesia got its act together, the whole region dodged a bullet," says Ramage.

        On the negative side, Suharto condoned cronyism on a monumental scale; his relatives amassed a fortune estimated at $15 billion to $35 billion before their patriarch left office. In the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, Indonesia's currency collapsed, its export machine sputtered and the government was forced to accept a humiliating IMF bailout; 10 years later, the scars of that downturn are still fresh. On the political front, Suharto's intolerance of dissent stunted democratic development and fanned sectarian discontent. Under his guidance, the Tentara Nasional Indonesia (TNI), or national armed forces, imposed reigns of terror on separatists
from Aceh on the northwest tip of Sumatra to the provinces of Papua and West Papua (Indonesia's half of New Guinea) on the Coral Sea.

        The bloodiest military actions took place after the TNI invaded East Timor, a small former Portuguese colony with a population of 650,000, in 1975. Indonesia annexed it a year later. During the 24 years Jakarta ruled the territory, according to Amnesty International, some 200,000 Timorese died in fighting or from conflict-related illnesses and starvation. After Suharto's departure, citizens in East Timor voted overwhelmingly for independence and, under intense international pressure, the TNI pulled out. A United Nations-sponsored peacekeeping force remains on the ground in independent East Timor, which ranks among the world's poorest nations.

        Forecasts that Indonesia would fracture without a strongman at its helm proved wrong. Democracy has flourished despite a series of weak presidents and unstable political parties that coalesce and dissolve around charismatic personalities more than policy positions or ideals. The military is largely out of politics, courts are growing more independent and Indonesia's media is arguably ASEAN's freest. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has won praise for his economic reforms and handling of the 2005 tsunami, including a breakthrough peace deal brokered with rebels in Aceh just months after nearly 200,000 Indonesians perished in the province when the giant waves hit.

        Yet democracy remains messy business in Indonesia, and Suharto's passing has evoked tinges of nostalgia. "To be frank, I really regret that he had to step down, and I was among those who wanted him to," says Mahmudin, a motorcycle-taxi driver in Jakarta. "I did not know that life would get harder and it would be more difficult to make living."

        In a country of 230 million with one of Asia's highest poverty rates, it's not surprising that, 40 years on, Suharto is best remembered at home and abroad for the economic prosperity and stability he pledged to his people and, for a time, delivered.

© 2008