Posts with tag: Soeharto

Talking Indonesia: Soeharto as national hero

In this week's episode, Dr Elisabeth Kramer is joined by historian Dr Ken Setiawan and Lailly Prihatiningtyas, a PhD student representing the Sydney-based group Aliansi Gusar, to explore what the designation of Soeharto as a national hero means for Indonesia's democracy, its memory politics, and its ongoing struggle with accountability for past atrocities.

Soeharto vis-à-vis Duterte: two opposite tales

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In Jakarta, Soeharto’s portrait now hangs in the Hall of Heroes. In The Hague, Duterte’s mugshot sits in the ICC archive. Both images capture the same paradox: nations struggling to live with their dictators, yet unable to live without them.

Of heroes and villains: Prabowo’s playbook for power and historical revisionism 

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By elevating figures like Soeharto, the government legitimises past authoritarian rule and normalises such practices in the present, thereby strengthening the current president’s grip on power. This strategy allows the government to consolidate authority while sidestepping accountability.

Naming Soeharto a national hero undermines democratic reforms

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10 November is Indonesia's Heroes’ Day, and  President Prabowo Subianto is a few steps closer to declaring his former father-in-law, the late autocrat president Soeharto, a national hero. It seems the government’s Council for Titles, Medals, and Honours, chaired by Minister of Culture Fadli Zon, may reframe Soeharto’s legacy as a corrupt, autocratic ruler with a more positive image by awarding him the hero title.

Talking Indonesia: transnational human rights activism

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In Talking Indonesia this week, Dr Dirk Tomsa chats to Dr Vannessa Hearman about the letter-writing friendships that political prisoners under Soeharto developed with supporters and human rights activists overseas.

The Australian left is known for backing Papuan independence – but it wasn’t always this way

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Dominique Tasevski examines the history of the Australian Communist Party’s problematic and inconsistent position on Indonesian control over West Papua.

Arief Budiman, activist, public intellectual and scholar (1941-2020)

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Prominent public intellectual and leading critic of the Soeharto regime Arief Budiman died on 23 April. Professor Vedi Hadiz reflects on the life of the dissident academic and Foundation Professor of Indonesian Studies at the University of Melbourne.

The danger of rejecting democracy for the sake of economic growth

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As observers warn of Indonesia’s democratic retreat, Dr Robertus Robet questions the growing belief that authoritarianism is a shortcut to development

Best of 2018

It’s time again for Indonesia at Melbourne to take a short break over the Christmas and New Year period. Here we reflect on some of our favourite and most popular blog posts and podcasts from 2018. We look forward to seeing you again when we return in mid-January.

Indonesia at Melbourne is supported by:

Melbourne Law School Asia Institute Centre for Indonesian Law, Islam and Society Indonesia Forum Faculty of Arts Indonesia Democracy Hallmark Research Initiative

Indonesia at Melbourne

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Email:  indo-at-melb@unimelb.edu.au

Date created: 1 July 2015

Editor: Ary Hermawan

Editorial board: 
Professor Tim Lindsey
Dr Tim Mann
Aron Corbett

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