The Wall Street Journal-20080128-Suharto Leaves a Mixed Record- Indonesian Dictator Stifled Democracy- Civil Liberties But Led Humming Economy

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Suharto Leaves a Mixed Record; Indonesian Dictator Stifled Democracy, Civil Liberties But Led Humming Economy

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Suharto, the autocratic leader who dominated Indonesia for 32 years, lifted his country out of extreme poverty.

But many Indonesians are more likely to remember Mr. Suharto, who died yesterday at age 86, as a stubborn strongman who blocked development of democracy, repressed civil liberties and fostered a business culture tainted by patronage, nepotism and corruption -- a legacy that continues to haunt Southeast Asia's largest country and biggest economy.

Mr. Suharto's achievements as president -- notably an economy that grew at an average annual rate of 6.5% from 1967 to 1997 -- and his leadership failures make it likely Indonesians will long argue about his era.

Raised in poverty in rural Java, Mr. Suharto was a towering figure in Asia from 1965 -- when the Indonesian army overturned left-leaning President Sukarno -- until 1998, when he was driven from power during the Asian financial crisis. For most of his tenure, Mr. Suharto was strongly supported by the U.S. and other Western powers, which initially saw him as a bulwark against the spread of communism in Southeast Asia and backed him with military and economic aid.

Mr. Suharto's death likely marks the end of a postcolonial era of strongman rule in developing Asia. It is unlikely that an individual can again preside for decades over a major Asian country.

But that doesn't mean most of Asia is firmly on the path to sustainable multiparty democracy in the Western sense. The military coup that overthrew a popularly elected government in Thailand in 2006 shows how a step back toward authoritarian rule is still possible. Southeast Asia today includes countries dominated by a single party, such as Singapore and Malaysia; communist states Vietnam and Laos; and fledgling democracies including post-Suharto Indonesia, Thailand, where the military still plays an important political role, and the Philippines, which also has a history of military intervention and extralegal leadership changes.

Reclusive and repressive Myanmar is ruled by an institutionalized military junta that brutally suppressed a pro-democracy uprising last year. Southeast Asia's one lingering strongman is Hun Sen in Cambodia. He has been in charge for more than 20 years, initially as a quasicommunist leader and then as a nominally elected head of a one- party state.

Factors ranging from poverty to poor education to traditionally autocratic political systems and feudalistic cultural traditions have inhibited evolution of Western-style democracy in many countries.

Mr. Suharto's successors in Indonesia have struggled to maintain political stability -- a hallmark of his government -- and to promote what his era failed to produce: the rule of law and a democratic political system that can bind together an ethnically diverse archipelago of more than 17,000 islands and more than 240 million people.

Indonesia's economy is again growing at the Suharto-era pace. But it is struggling to compete for manufacturing and high-tech investment with China and India. Detractors blame Mr. Suharto's failure to build an education system that could turn out big numbers of engineers, management professionals and tech specialists -- leaving the economy still heavily dependent on exporting oil, gas and other natural resources. Meanwhile, more than 30% of Indonesia's work force remains underemployed, according to the World Bank.

Mr. Suharto died in a Jakarta hospital of multiple organ failure more than three weeks after he entered it with anemia and heart problems. He had suffered from a variety of ailments for several years. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a former general who called the late leader "one of Indonesia's best sons," announced a week of mourning.

After visiting Mr. Suharto earlier this month, former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew told reporters: "Yes, there was corruption. Yes, he gave favors to his family and his friends. But there was real growth and real progress. I think the people of Indonesia are lucky."

Had Mr. Suharto, a former five-star general, stepped down in the mid-1990s while the economy was booming, he might have exited to general applause. Instead, he failed to groom a successor and held ever more tightly to power, only to be toppled when Asia's 1997-98 crisis exposed Indonesia's rickety financial system and a mountain of bad corporate debt.

The economy's collapse also provoked a backlash focused on the pervasive influence and privileges enjoyed by Mr. Suharto's family and business cronies, who amassed huge fortunes during his rule.

Perceiving Mr. Suharto as a growing liability, Indonesia's political and economic establishment turned against him. Under pressure, Mr. Suharto resigned the presidency on May 21, 1998.

Today, Mr. Suharto is often vilified, especially by younger Indonesians -- who don't know or care that his economic policies helped create millions of jobs in the past -- and by others who decry his era's human-rights abuses and corruption.

Despite an array of allegations against him, Mr. Suharto was never convicted of a crime. He was charged in 2000 with embezzling $570 million in state funds, but a judge agreed with his lawyers that he was too ill to face trial. After a 2006 bid to reopen the case failed, prosecutors started a civil case against Mr. Suharto, charging that he bilked a state-funded academic-scholarship fund out of $440 million.

In 2002, Mr. Suharto's youngest son was convicted of ordering the murder of a Supreme Court judge who had found him guilty in a corruption case. He was released from prison after serving one-third of a 15-year sentence in a decision critics said reflected the family's lingering influence.

Mr. Suharto himself went on the legal offensive to defend his name. In September, Indonesia's Supreme Court ordered Time magazine to pay $106 million in damages for defaming Mr. Suharto in a 1999 article that alleged his family had amassed $15 billion while he was in power. Time is appealing the ruling.

For most of his long rule, Mr. Suharto, abetted by a cadre of technocrats, presided over economic development of a country that was among the world's poorest in 1965. Although inefficient and often- corrupt state enterprises continued to dominate the economy through the 1980s, Mr. Suharto channeled funds to agriculture and rural development, opened Indonesia's oil and mining industries to foreign investment and attracted billions in foreign loans and aid.

But his dominating presence stunted the development of government and civic institutions. He also snuffed out any sign of opposition -- sometimes ruthlessly. As popular anger with his family's greed grew, Mr. Suharto didn't get the message.

His failure to respond to growing pressure for political reform, and to curb avaricious relatives and cronies, ultimately brought his downfall.

To many Indonesians, Mr. Suharto was like a banyan tree with many outstretched branches and a thick canopy. For decades, he proved as durable as the long-lived tree. The problem, Indonesians say, is that nothing else can grow in the banyan tree's shadow. When it dies, there is nothing to replace it.

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Tom Wright contributed to this article.