Suharto was Indonesia’s president (dictator in all but name) from 1967 to 1998. He seized power in a military coup, and soon implemented a crackdown on the Chinese immigrant community, suspected of harboring Communist revolutionaries. 

He banned the Communist party, and mostly embraced Western investment. Since it was the Cold War, American and Europe were willing to overlook the fact that he was a dictator for the lovely investment and defense opportunities in the area. 

Every five years he’d hold a sham election to give the world the pretense of a democratic process. Meanwhile he used secret police to inform on potential dissent, and used the army to crush local revolts. Western companies invested heavily in the oil and natural resources, and he used the army to protect their investments. 

And yet… it’s hard not to try to be fair to the man. As dictators went, he wasn’t too bad. He held the country together, maintained stability, and created infrastructure where there previously was none. It grew economically, more people were better educated, and people were otherwise pretty free. 

He wasn’t prey to the delusions of grandeur of other dictators, implemented no stupid wars. He himself was cleaner, in terms of corruption, compared to his family. He was more of a “Father Knows Best” dictator, even preferring to be known as “Bapak Suharto” (Bapak meaning father). 

Granted the country was still a mess. And most of the benefits of economic growth seemed to show up mostly in Java, not the other islands. This is why other provinces have independence movements, because they see the wealth of their territory being drilled out with no benefit to themselves. 

And Suharto’s family was crazy corrupt. 

What’s funny is that after he stepped down from power, they wanted to try him for human rights violations. He was a fairly old man by then, but was confined to house arrest and every time he was scheduled for a hearing he basically called sick and sent a note from his doctor. 

He passed away in 2008, never having gone to trial. They are, however, still searching for his family, who held the majority of the billions of dollars in embezzled funds.