Indonesia a new national hero has appeared: the former dictator, the late president Suharto.
Monday's official award sparked outrage among human rights activists, who accuse the country's current leader, President Prabowo Subiantoto whitewash the legacy of his former father-in-law.
Suharto, a staunch anti-communist who was a close US ally during the Cold War, ruled the country for 32 years before being toppled by deadly mass protests in 1998 amid the Asian financial crisis. His reign was marked by rapid economic growth and political stability, as well as accusations of human rights abuses, corruption and nepotism.
Suharto was among 10 people given the title of national hero at the presidential palace in Jakarta. The annual award recognizes those who have made significant contributions to Indonesia, the Southeast Asian archipelago and the former Dutch colony that declared independence in 1945.
“An outstanding figure of Central Java Province, a hero of the struggle for independence, General Suharto has stood out since independence,” the announcer said as Prabowo presented the award to Suharto's daughter and son.
Suharto, a military officer, became president in 1967 after seizing power from Indonesia's first president and independence leader Sukarno, whom Western governments considered pro-communist.
Culture Minister Fadly Zon said Suharto played a key role in Indonesia's independence and also led the military operation that helped bring back what it is now. West Papua from the Dutch in the 1960s.
Suharto was a key military officer during the 1965 military purge of communists, which was said to be planning a coup. Indonesia never investigated the purge, in which historians say some 500,000 people were killed in one of the worst massacres of the 20th century and Suharto's involvement was never proven.
He also oversaw Indonesia's 1975 invasion of East Timor and the ensuing 24-year occupation that left an estimated 100,000 or more dead. East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, gained independence from Indonesia in 2002.
Suharto and his family were also accused of stealing $45 billion in government funds, although this was never proven. Although authorities tried to bring corruption charges against Suharto starting in 2000, Suharto failed to appear in court and the charges were later dropped due to his poor health. He died in 2008 at the age of about 80.
He is also credited with promoting the rapid economic development of Indonesia, a country of 280 million people that is the world's most populous Muslim-majority country.
“In the '70s and '80s, 50 million people were lifted out of extreme poverty,” David Henley, a professor of modern Indonesian studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands, told NBC News.
“This is Suharto's greatest claim to hero status.”
Despite the atrocities that marked Suharto's regime, it was “never completely disgraced,” Henley said.
“For some time there has been a tendency in official circles to rehabilitate Suharto” and view his regime “in an increasingly positive light,” he said.
Others bucked the trend.
Every Thursday, silent protests take place outside the presidential palace in Jakarta over Suharto's alleged abuses, including by people still searching for their loved ones.
Protesters also gathered in Jakarta last week to protest against Suharto being named a national hero.
Prabowo, who was previously married to Suharto's daughter Siti Hediati Hariyadi, also has a military background. He has denied allegations of human rights abuses in East Timor, where he headed a special forces unit in the 1980s, and in Papua.
He was also the commander of a special forces unit that was accused of kidnapping and torturing pro-democracy activists in the 1990s, although Prabowo was never charged.
He was later banned from traveling to the US until 2020, when he became Secretary of Defense. He became president last year.
Even after Suharto's death, his family's legacy remains deeply rooted in Indonesian politics. His political party, Golkar, remains a formidable force and last year endorsed Prabowo's candidacy for president.
