I won’t say that I’m representing 220 million Indonesians when I’m writing this. But, if you wish to get some snapshots of how we deal with Soeharto’s death, perhaps this writing can help you a little, as I’m neither close person nor direct enemy of the former president; I’m just one of the majority who had undergone years of life under his presidency without personal problems with him.
During the first 15 years of my life, since I was born in 1982 until Soeharto gave his presidential post to vice president BJ Habibie in May 1998, I had seen the old man almost every day on TV.
As long as I remember, he was always white-haired and stout, very grandfather-like, and he smiled a lot. I guess I had seen him even more often than I had seen my late granddad. That was why I couldn’t help being fond of him; that was why it was hard for me to believe that he had done so many mistakes during his 32-year of presidency.
I was fifteen (in my last year at junior high school) when suddenly everybody hated him; when massive number of people, mostly college students staged a rally, demanded him to leave his presidential post; when everybody said he was corrupt and got angry at him.
When my elder sister (she was doing her last year in senior high school that time; ready to enter university) expressed the same sharp critics, I defended Pak Harto and sincerely, naively said something like, “Whatever people say about him, Sis, I’ll support him forever.”
Of course, after I grew older and heard a lot more about his alleged past sins, and I didn’t see him on TV as often as I had earlier (which could spark sympathy), I turned to be his opponent, thou’, as I’ve never been directly affected by his wrongdoings, the opposition has not been wholehearted.
Now the discourse that has emerged since Pak Harto was taken to hospital earlier this month is whether to forgive him and forget his past mistakes, or to continue the legal process against him.
Those on his side of course prefer the former, but his opponents definitely prefer the latter. There are also those putting themselves in the middle, saying they forgive him but want the legal process continue…(this group’s stance is rather confusing, actually; what the hell do they actually mean?).
I admit that I am among those whose sympathy have been triggered with the footages of his so weak, ailing of countenance during his illness time and, today, of the beautified footages of his biographies on TV (complete with sad, touchy music and moments).
I must say, too, that I’m not one of those who eagerly want the legal process against him to continue (as I said; because I don’t directly feel inflicted by his wrongdoings), but…I’m definitely one of those who think it must continue, especially in order to take back billions of U.S. dollars he and his big family had taken from us, the entire Indonesians. The money can be used to help tens of millions of poor people across the country (if not being stolen by incumbent government officials, of course!).
Now many people here have shown so deep of sympathy to the level where they wish the government and certain groups of vocal people forget Soeharto’s alleged past sins.
I don’t know their percentage, but I reckon that they’re quite many.
Now I offer my deepest condolence to Pak Harto’s family, and wish that God would forgive his mistakes. But, this doesn’t mean that his alleged past mistakes could be hence forgotten. As a Muslim, I believe, too, that Allah (SWT) wants justice to be uphold in the world.
Media observer Effendi Ghazali told me recently, “Forgiving this one person will hurt million others.”
And what Mr. Ghazali meant by ‘forgiving’ here is forgetting the things Soeharto had done, which had brought sufferings to many people.
I agree with Mr. Ghazali; a hundred percent.
Anyway, Pak Harto, goodbye...you’re indeed like a grandfather to me (although you perhaps never acknowledged me as a granddaughter), so it is so unfortunate if you did conduct the things that had hurt millions of people here).
