An overview of the Presidents of Indonesia from its independence in 1945 to now. The President of Indonesia is both the head of state and the head of government, exercising a great deal of power within the Indonesian government and society. As Indonesia is the world's fourth most populous country, 17th largest economy in the world by nominal GDP, 7th largest in terms of GDP (PPP), the largest economy in Southeast Asia and also the most militarily powerful within that region means that the president is one of the most powerful people in Asia, if not the world.
It's a shame that virtually no one outside the region acknowledges this.
When a president takes office, they reside in the Dutch colonial-style National Palace (Istana Negara), the official presidential residency and situated at the heart of the capital, Jakarta, along with most other government institutions. Every Thursday, the palace's gates are usually crowded by a handful of social and human rights activists demonstrating against the government. (On the other side of the spectrum, there are also religious fundamentalists every Tuesday, but they tend to rabble-rouse in the commercial quarters of the city instead.)
Every president of Indonesia has been born in Java or is of Javanese extraction with the sole exception of 3rd President Habibie, who was born in Celebes (modern day Sulawesi). This ongoing trend within Indonesia's history has cultivated an image of the presidency as an inherently Javanese office, and as such tends to deter non-Javanese people from running in presidential elections.
Since 2004, presidents and vice presidents are directly elected by the people to serve five-year terms and can run for reelection once, allowing a president to serve for a decade inside the office.
Below is the list of Presidents of Indonesia from past to present.
Soekarno
The first President of Indonesia. Soekarno (or Sukarno) was born Koesno Sosrodihardjo on 6 June 1901 in Soerabaja (modern day Surabaya). Soekarno was the son of a Javanese teacher and nobleman to his Hindu Balinese wife. He was renamed after he survived a childhood illness following Javanese customs. Because of his father's high standing within the Dutch East Indies as a nobleman, Soekarno received better education than most kids his age, attending education in Dutch schools for his primary education. In his youth, Soekarno was a passionate scholar and a charming classmate, both qualities would define his character in later years. While attending higher education, Soekarno met with Tjokroaminoto, a respected figure within Java and a forerunner of Indonesian nationalism who would expose Soekarno to ideas of nationalism. He would go on to study civil engineering in Bandung, receiving an engineer's degree and began organizing study groups consisting of Indonesian students as a opposed to other study groups who were dominated by Dutch and Dutch-Indonesian students.
After graduating, Soekarno would work a day job by opening up an architectural firm with his friend while he immersed himself further with political and philosophical ideas coming from Europe and Indonesia. The study club he formed would then become the Partai Nasional Indonesia (Indonesian National Party) and he became it's first leader. The party that Soekarno led was attractive to many ambitious and bright Indonesians students who were denied the opportunity for success because of racism and the chaffing colonial policies. But because Soekarno was more concerned with the quantities, the party did not stand on consistent ideological grounds as it received socialists, Islamic fundementalists, communists, anarchists and nationalists. This focus on quantity would later become his undoing after Indonesia's independence. The party would be involved in anti-Dutch and anti-colonial activities culminating in Soekarno's arrest where he would be exiled. The Dutch would exile Soekarno twice, once to Flores and to Bengkulu.
In 1929, both Soekarno and fellow intellectual Hatta (who would become his first vice president) foresaw a war in the Pacific by observing Japanese imperialistic ambitions. They would wait out for the Japanese to go south and attack the Dutch, and with Japanese aid, would achieve an independent Indonesia. This prediction would later come true in 1942, when the Japanese invaded the Dutch East Indies, crushed their military might and took over Indonesia. Soekarno was taken by the Japanese to pacify the people of Indonesia and to cooperate with them. The Japanese promised independence to the fledging Indonesians which appealed to Soekarno's aspirations. Soekarno along with the rest of his nationalist and revolutionary compatriots cooperated with the Japanese to use the Indonesian populace as labor and to help the Japanese fuel their war effort with Indonesian resources while also working to formulate the basis of governance for an independent Indonesia. In 1945, seeing that the Japanese was losing and upon the urging of youth groups who kidnapped him and threatened to kill Soekarno if he did not declare independence, Soekarno hastily declared independence on behalf of the Indonesian people on 17 August 1945 and against the wishes of the Allied powers, who wanted to return Indonesia under the rule of the Dutch.
Soekarno led Indonesia during it's formative years. Under Soekarno's strong and charismatic leadership, Indonesia was able to fight off the returning Dutch and British forces, and signed agreements with the Dutch that culminated in the Dutch recognizing Indonesia as a sovereign state. However, Indonesia's independence was not the end of Indonesia's struggle, but rather as it's start. In the 1950's, some of Soekarno's political allies rebelled against him in various different rebellions and "security disturbance" as Indonesia's history books would call them. These rebellions came from a place of dissatisfaction, as Soekarno's chronic indecision of picking an ideological standing irritated the more ideological hardliners like the Islamic fundamentalists and communists. Soekarno was known for his hands off approach in governance and following a period of political experimentations where Indonesia shifted into different types of government, he settled with being arbitrary. His lack of input slowed down the Indonesian Constitutional Assembly, whom were tasked with tailoring an Indonesian constitution. Indonesia remains without a proper constitution until 1959, which was subsequently dissolved and Soekarno reinstated the 1945 draft, effectively making him an autocrat. As a person, Soekarno was described as more of a 'visionary' than a 'bureaucrat'. He envisioned a great Indonesian nation that is widely feared, admired and respected by the world. To that end, Soekarno is more interested in foreign policy, taking a more aggressive stance with Malaysia (by extension, the United Kingdom) whom he believed should be part of Indonesia and becoming more intimate with the Soviet Union because the Soviet's aversion towards imperialism and capitalism goes in line with Indonesia's fight against global colonialism. He strengthen ties with India, Egypt and Yugoslavia whom he believed as his kins due to shared experience under colonialism and imperialism, personally befriending Gamal Abdul Nasser and Josip Broz Tito, the latter described him as an "oriental goldwater" due to his shock on Soekarno's extreme views against imperialism. To become a country that would be worthy of the world's admiration, Soekarno would allocate much needed funds for public works and facility on stadiums, statues, monuments, hotels and roads. These reasons, along with Indonesia's overspending on it's military expenditures as part of the effort to quell rebellions and to fulfill Soekarno's megalomaniacal visions bankrupted Indonesia and Indonesia's economy collapsed under massive foreign debt. Lastly, Soekarno was very contemptuous with macroeconomics, and in the face of massive starvation, lack of investment and economical collapse, did not gave any practical solutions, and instead pushed for ideological conceptions where he believed Indonesia should not be reliant on other countries, further dooming Indonesia into poverty.
All of this contributed to his presidency drawing to a close. In the 1960's, confrontation with Malaysia politically and militarily damaged Indonesia's reputation in Asia and diplomatic relations with foreign countries, especially among the UK and Commonwealth countries. His unique political system of Guided Democracy - a form of "constitutional authoritarianism" - balanced secular nationalist, Islamist, and communist elements, the latter overwhelmingly represented by the Indonesian Communist Party (Partai Komunis Indonesia, PKI). Such was its stature under the simultaneously nationalist, devoutly Islamic, and committed socialist Soekarno's regime that it grew to be the largest non-ruling communist party in the world; in surpassing the communist parties of every Warsaw Pact nation other than the Soviet Union, this simultaneously left it the third largest communist party in the world after China's.
At this time, the Sino-Soviet split was fully maturing as the Soviet Union under Khrushchev explicitly rejected Stalinism, pushed for a more sustainable communist model, and sought "peaceful coexistence" with the West, whereas the highly belligerent and ideologically dogmatic Mao Zedong was leading China down what looked like an uncomfortably Stalinesque. The West, however, was incorrectly of the view that all communists still presented a united front, and that what turned out to be an intense, violent, and very real feud between the two juggernauts of modern communism was merely a petty and easily resolvable dispute. Combined with the PKI's size and both the USSR's and China's enthusiasm in their relations with Soekarno's Indonesia (in fact part of their internecine competition, and not a sign of committed communism on Soekarno's part as Western experts surmised), the CIA felt it had to take action.
On October 1, 1965, leftist Presidential guardsmen led an abortive and muddled counter-coup that left six generals, suspected of being part of a right-wing plot against Soekarno, dead by sunrise. The actual right wing of the Army succeeded in painting this as an outright PKI coup against Soekarno himself, and enlisted the help of the CIA and many a street gang in killing every communist, communist sympathizer and suspected communist (read: Chinese person) they could find over the course of 1965 and 1966. The Army's political faction, at this point led by Major-General Soeharto in the wake of his superiors' deaths, was lushly rewarded by Soekarno, without any coercion involved, by way of Soeharto being appointed Acting President, then President once the purge concluded. Soeharto, so the textbooks inexplicably still claim, in turn thanked Soekarno for his lifetime of service to the Indonesian nation by seeing him off to a happy retirement.
This "retirement" was in fact an ignominious period of house arrest that Soekarno spent the last three years of his life languishing under, with his political influence destroyed and his entire political system in tatters even as his enduringly popular image continued to be exploited by the government. Soekarno died of kidney failure in 1970 at age 69, unhappy and marginalized. The Soeharto regime denied his funeral the splendor one would have expected of such a pivotal and universally admired figure in Indonesian history and buried him in an unassuming grave next to his mother's. It was only in the late 70s that the "Orde Baru" decided that the coast was clear, and it renovated the grave into a fully-blown mausoleum that has been something of a political pilgrimage site ever since.
In his lifetime, Soekarno is known as an intellectual, a vocal speaker and a charismatic figure. His passionate speeches and ideas of Indonesia drew a lot of support from all sides and manners of the public. However, his obsession with maintaining support made him appear indecisive and duplicitous, especially towards the end of his life. Naturally, both his intellect and charm won him the affection of many women in his life. Soekarno was a serial womanizer and married nine times in his life. His first wife was Siti Oetari, daughter of his mentor Tjokroaminoto. He courted Oetari early in his life. He later underwent a cycle of marriage and divorces, marrying Fatmawati who bore him Megawati Soekarnoputri, his eldest daughter and the fifth President of Indonesia. He later met Naoko Nemoto, a hostess in Ginza. Soekarno met her when he went to Tokyo for a state visit and the two married, to which she became his lifelong companion until his house arrest. Even in his string of marriages, Soekarno allegedly had countless affairs with the women he met in his life.
Today, Soekarno is best known for building many known post-Colonial Indonesian landmarks such as the National Monument (Monas) and the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium. These two landmarks would be important for Jakarta's shared identity. Despite his failures towards the end of his presidency, many Indonesians see Soekarno as a well meaning but deeply flawed character who would probably bring Indonesia to greatness if he was willing to put aside his principles and ideas. And while recent studies postulates that there were early contenders for the title of "Founding Father" such as Tan Malaka, everyone agrees that Indonesia would not achieve shape without his charisma uniting people under the dream of an independent Indonesia, regardless of one's ideology.
Soeharto
The second President of Indonesia. Soeharto (or Suharto) was born on 8 June 1921 in Kemusuk, Yogyakarta. Sworn into office on 1966 after the pro-Army government overthrew Soekarno. Soeharto contrasted with his predecessor Soekarno. While Soekarno was an intellectual scholar brimming with charisma, Soeharto was a simple man who joined the military out of circumstances and was described as cold. Born on Kemusuk, Dutch East Indies in 8 June 1921, Suharto's upbringing was quite simple, as he lived a life to a son of a village irrigation official and spent most of his life outside the contact of European colonizers and modernity. Suharto attended lower fee schools and later graduated basic education at 18, where he took upon a clerical job in a local bank. Suharto was later fired because his employers did not like that he tore his only working clothes due to an accident. Jobless, he enlisted in the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL).
In the Second World War, after Japan took over Dutch East Indies, Suharto was transferred into the service of the Japanese backed Indonesian militia called the 'PETA' (Defenders of the Motherland). PETA militiamen were trained and led by Japanese officers who trained them harshly and indoctrinated them with the Bushido code, which profoundly influenced Soeharto's way of thinking. Soeharto did not participate on the PETA Rebellion against the Japanese and in the aftermath of the rebellion, he was dispatched to train newer NCOs to replace the ones that were killed in the rebellion. When the Japanese surrendered to the Allies, Suharto was ordered to disband his regiment which he promptly did and returned to Yogyakarta. Soeharto would then join the new republican groups who were forming militias to fight against Dutch forces attempting to reassert control on Indonesia. Suharto fought with distinction, earning him the respect of officers higher in rank, and by the end of the Dutch aggressions, Soeharto was already a high ranking officer within the Indonesian Army.
Soeharto's career post independence sees him mostly leading security forces against rebel groups. During the period, Soeharto spent most of his time fighting against Islamic-inspired rebels, bandits and occasional communist rebels. The time he spent then left him with deep distaste over Islamic radicalism and communist, which will affect his politics in later years. In 1965, the Indonesian Communist Party undertook a brazen coup against the Indonesian government by assassinating six generals, one of them allegedly selected by Soekarno to be his successor. The Indonesian Communist Party claims that these six generals were plotting a coup to overthrow the Indonesian government and Soekarno, hence why they disposed of the six generals. As one of the last high ranking generals assumed to be loyal to Soekarno, Soeharto was suddenly propelled into the political limelight and took control of the Indonesian Army. Soeharto's faction, now firmly in control of the Army, secured authority from Soekarno to "restore order" from the communists, leading to one of the darkest periods in Indonesian history, and what the CIA considers to be one of the worst mass killings in the 20th century just behind the Soviet purges, the Holocaust and Maoist bloodbaths. Soeharto, backed by Western countries, and the Indonesian government, led the Indonesian Army to commit the Indonesian mass killings of 1965-1966. It is estimated that around 500,000 - 1,000,000 people were executed in an act of extrajudicial killings perpetrated not just by the army, but also people that organized themselves as violent mobs. Most of the victims were communist party members, communists, communist sympathizers and their relatives. Even some Indonesians who are suspected could be executed. To this day, the Indonesian government has made no resolution towards the killings to the victim's families.
In the aftermath of the killings, the Indonesian Army took over the government and removed Soekarno from his presidency. Soeharto was later sworn to office as a temporary president, before becoming the official president two years later.
Soeharto's first order of business was to consolidate power; he packed the entire government with his cronies and political allies, placating Soekarno's ideologically diverse government and making sure that they are all from his camp. He strengthens the consolidation by introducing the 'Dual Function', which enabled military officers to serve in political and governmental positions without relinquishing their ranks. He later enabled only the parliament to chose a president. This entire setup made sure that Soeharto would always be in power for years to come. Soeharto would then distance Indonesia away from the Soviet Union and China, to be more closer with the United States and the West. This came in form of Soeharto appointing the "Berkeley Mafia", a group of Indonesian economists that studied in Berkeley, in high positions within the government to promote and stimulate a free market economy within Indonesia and do away with Soekarno era progressive policies. Soeharto's administration settled government debt, cutting subsidies and modified the exchange rate mechanism which prove to lower inflation from 660% in 1966 to 19% in 1969. Soeharto's actions saved the Indonesian economy from collapsing completely and garnered favor from the United States, the West and other pro-American countries such as South Korea and Japan. This newfound cooperation led to Indonesia mending it's relationship with Malaysia and became one of the founders of the Association of South East Nations (ASEAN), when at the time, Southeast Asia was ruled by many dictators, giving ASEAN the moniker of the "Dictators Tea Club".
Later, Soeharto planned five year plans for infrastructure six times during his administration. These programs were called REPELITA I - VI and aimed to centralize macro economy. In 1974, with express approval of US president Gerald Ford and Australia, Soeharto launched a full scale invasion of East Timor to intervene on it's civil war and to prevent the creation of a communist state. Indonesia would annex East Timor into it's territory proper although guerilla fighting still rages on in the depths of Timor. Real socio-economic progress sustained support for Suharto's regime across three decades. By 1996, Indonesia's poverty rate has dropped to around 11% compared with 45% in 1970. From 1966 to 1997, Indonesia recorded real GDP growth of 5.03% pa, pushing real GDP per capita upwards from US$806 to US$4,114. In 1966, the manufacturing sector made up less than 10% of GDP (mostly industries related to oil and agriculture). By 1997, manufacturing had risen to 25% of GDP, and 53% of exports consisted of manufactured products. The government invested in massive infrastructure development (notably the launching of a series of Palapa telecommunication satellites); consequently, Indonesian infrastructure in the mid-1990s was considered at par with China.
Yet with all the successive results of Soeharto's regime, the personal involvement of Soeharto's family within Indonesian politics and economy as well as his allies contributed to the rapid growing corruption within Indonesia. Outside of formal economy, Soeharto relied on families and friends to set up charities and foundations to rack up donations overseas in exchange for government support and permits. The money did indeed end up for charitable purposes, but it became a slush fund to reward political allies. In 1984, Tommy Soeharto's Humpuss Group managed to gain 60 subsidiaries in a matter of months. In 1989, Suharto issued a decree granting his daughter Tutut 75% of profits from all toll roads her group operated jointly with Jasa Marga, driving costs up still further. In early 2004, the German anti-corruption NGO Transparency International released a list of what it believed to be the ten most self-enriching leaders in the previous two decades; in order of amount allegedly stolen in USD, the highest-ranking of these was Suharto and his family who are alleged to have embezzled $15 billion – $35 billion.
Soeharto and his family continued to stay on power for 30 years uncontested, leading an economically prosperous Indonesia with his firm and authoritative hand. The people of Indonesia was mostly chaffing under his undemocratic rule. Soeharto relied on a force of soldiers and policemen to control the populace, the Indonesian people call them "Petrus" or penembak misterius (mystery shooter). The Asian financial crisis of 1997 would be the fatal blow towards Soeharto's presidency, the crisis hit Indonesia during the start of 1998. In January 1998, the rupiah lost half of its value, causing Indonesians to hoard for food en masse since the famine in the 60s. The IMF approached Indonesia to bail, only to worsen the crisis. It is believed that the IMF and Soeharto pushed for too much reform within too little time, thereby worsening the Indonesian economy. The government's inability to control the crisis finally gave people the excuse they needed to oust Soeharto out of office.
Around April 1998, Soeharto and the IMF signed a third agreement that led to Soeharto reducing subsidies. While there were already major social factors at work demonstrating against Soeharto, it was mostly university students demanding for more competence within the government. The reduction of subsidies of fuel caused a massive riots to break out in major cities within Indonesia. People from all levels of society took the streets in Jakarta to demonstrate against Soeharto's regime, demanding him to come down. When four university students from Trisakti University were shot and killed by military personnel during the demonstration, the situation broke into a full-scale riot and looting. Anarchy looms in Jakarta. To control the situation, Soeharto reshuffled his cabinet but his officials refused to join his new cabinet. Soeharto granted power to General Wiranto to do "whatever it takes" to quell and control the riots, but Wiranto understands that a coercive approach towards the public would worsen the situation. Soeharto finally understood his position and that no one was willing to listen to him again, but despite all that, he could still cling into power. The final nail on the coffin would come from the Indonesian parliament speaker, Harmoko, demanding his resignation - an action that shook Soeharto himselfnote , as he genuinely saw Harmoko as a trustworthy ally. With all this at his doorstep, Soeharto did the unthinkable and finally resigned as President of Indonesia on the 21st of May.
Throughout his tenure as President, Soeharto often resorts to ruthless coercion and strongarming of people. His policies were a reflection of his personal experiences and preferences. Soeharto's upbringing contrasts with that of leading Indonesian nationalists such as Soekarno in that he is believed to have had little interest in anti-colonialism, or political concerns beyond his immediate surroundings. Unlike Soekarno and his circle, Soeharto had little or no contact with European colonisers. Consequently, he did not learn to speak Dutch or other European languages in his youth. In regard of politics, Soeharto cared little for the ideological assertion of the Pancasila and focused more on building the Indonesian nation. The policies that he took, both good and bad, underscored his pragmatism and practicality, in contrast to the grandeur and visionary Soekarno. This in turn, prepared Indonesia to face the changing landscape of global politics and economy.
While no longer serving, Soeharto's influence and legacy looms over Indonesia. The atrocities he committed which killed thousands and oppressed millions did not account him. His children, who General Benny Moerdani warned were becoming "greedy", became involved in politics and business to this day. Trillions of dollars worth of assets and money disappeared into his family's pockets. Despite all this, Soeharto arguably left Indonesia a better place than before and the reason he stayed in power for so long was while he was deeply corrupt and authoritarian, Soeharto made sure Indonesia's economy prosper, and their status in global politics more renown. Soekarno might've formed Indonesia, but Indonesians know Soeharto was the one who built Indonesia.
Soeharto passed away in 2009 from stroke while facing corruption charges.
B.J. Habibie
The third President of Indonesia. Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie was born in Sulawesi, 25 June 1936, making him the first and only president to have been born outside of Java. Habibie was an engineer and studied aviation in the Netherlands and Germany in his youth. He is the first president to have been a Doctorate and is the first president to have inherited the presidency from another president. His 517-day presidency and 71-day vice presidency were the shortest in the country's history.
Habibie was born in Gorontalo, Sulawesi to an agriculturalist and a Javanese noblewoman. He was raised far from the political intricacies of Java and thus had a quiet childhood. Graduating his primary education, Habibie continued to study aviation in the Netherlands during the late 1950s. But due to political circumstances, had to move to Germany and continue his studies in Aachen. Habibie would later graduate and received an engineering degree from Germany.
During the 1960s, Habibie moved back to Indonesia and married Hasri Ainun, his old schoolmate. Here, Habibie would find himself opportunities to work in a railway company, before writing a dissertation about aviation, landing himself a job at Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm. It was in this time that he worked on the Airbus A-300B and would subsequently become vice president of the company. Word of Habibie's success overseas and his breakthrough in thermodynamics reached the ears of Soeharto, who was interested in developing and industrializing Indonesia. He was personally recalled back to Indonesia and was tasked with encouraging the industrialization of the country, working for Pertamina (Indonesia's national oil company) and was made CEO of Industri Pesawat Terbang Nurtanio (IPTN; Nurtanio Aircraft Industry) which became PT. Dirgantara after 2000. He then became Minister of State Research and Development. It was at this time that his company was tasked with the creation of an Indonesian manufactured plane. Habibie and his company successfully made the plane and it was operational, but the plane became a commercial failure. Habibie was also responsible for granting many scholarships to Indonesians in order to study abroad which helped in building Indonesia's industries in the Reformation era.
His focus on pursuing technological advancements and the cultivation of Indonesia's industries made him a perfect political figure for Soeharto to keep around. Habibie was known for his bright mind, innovative ideas and industrious personality (no less learnt from the Germans), which Soeharto saw as the embodiment of Indonesia's development. His aversion towards Indonesian politics made him more trustworthy towards the average Indonesians. Soeharto inducted him into the Golkar Party (Golongan Karya) and by all accounts, was grooming Habibie to be his successor. However, Habibie was considered an outsider by Indonesian politicians because of his non-involvement in politics before he joined Golkar. This would later cost him his political career. Soeharto's patronage of Habibie culminated in Soeharto appointing Habibie as his vice president.
In May 1998, at the height of the Asian financial crisis, Habibie was given the shocking news of Soeharto's resignation as President of Indonesia. He assumed office immediately after his resignation and became the third President of Indonesia, despite having no political background nor experience. Habibie, having no interest in politics but a huge inclination towards the development of Indonesia, formed the Development Reform Cabinet and began dismantling Soeharto's authoritarian political structure by taking out Soeharto's cronies out of office, reshuffling the cabinet, released political prisoners and promised free elections. His decisions paved way for the Indonesian Reformation era, as he reintroduced democracy and free speech after 30 years of dictatorship. Habibie first policies outside of dismantling Soeharto's system is to give East Timor it's independence, understanding that the Soviet Union has lost the Cold War, meaning that a communist country would not be a threat to Indonesia. The Indonesian Army did not like this decision and even threatened to throw a military coup, but backed down when UN peacekeeping forces entered Timor. Habibie oversaw a great political reform within Indonesia that saw the reintroduction of democracy and free speech, and the reduction of the army's role within the government. It was during this reform that Habibie stepped on many foot, from people of the government and also the army. Habibie also opened up Indonesia to investments from other countries, seeking investment opportunities to support the development of Indonesia. While people saw him as only a temporary president, it would seem Habibie is determined to continue his presidency. Without much support, Habibie withdrew his nomination in the upcoming presidency and retired. He would continue his engineering work in Germany and spent most of his post-presidency life there than Indonesia.
After his presidency, he would become an active political advisor for the SBY administration and set up his independent think tank in Indonesia. Habibie would later suffer from health complications and heart problems in 2019. He passed away in 11 September 2019. Habibie's body would be buried in Kalibata Heroes Cemetery, and would be the first president to be buried there.
It is harsh to assume that Habibie is not a good president. Habibie did not have political savvy to navigate the cutthroat politics of Indonesia at the time, and made decisions based on virtue and logic rather than self-interest. While endearing and admirable to average Indonesians who wanted change, he upsets the political establishment of Indonesia far too many times. He approached his position using a Western-style presidency at a time when Indonesian politics was used to autocrats, making him look feeble before the political hardliners and military generals. Through all of this, Habibie's insistence on democratizing Indonesia changed the country for the better. And he would later become the president most depicted in Indonesian Media. Coming from humble beginnings, finding success overseas and presiding over a country on the precipice of change was inspiring to many Indonesians. He is the reason why Indonesia values freedom and democracy in the present day.
Abdurrahman Wahid
The fourth President of Indonesia. Abdurrahman ad-Dakhil or Abdurrahman Wahid or commonly known by his nickname Gus Dur became the first president that is elected into office through free elections. While elections did exist for the Soekarno and Soeharto era, the validity of their elections was in question simply because they were dictators. Gus Dur was also blind. A raging intellectual, philosopher and Islamic scholar, Gus Dur was known for his astute mind and his penchant for progressive policies. He arguably attempted to westernize Indonesia with his controversial policies, which led to his impeachment by the Indonesian parliament. Nowadays, many Indonesians believed that his policies would be better suited in a modern climate.
Born in Denanyar at 7 September 1940, Gus Dur was half Arabic and half Chinese. He was born to a founder of a huge religious organization inside Indonesia at that time. His family was a mixture of Chinese, Arabic and Javanese ancestry which was a big deal back then. Gus Dur was only a child during Indonesian National Revolution and at 1949, he and his family moved to Jakarta after his father was appointed as Minister of Religious Affairs by the government. As his father was an Islamic scholar and academic, Gus Dur was encouraged by his father to read non-Muslim books and media in order to broaden his horizons and study Western civilization which contributes to his future political outlook. Later on, his father was replaced as Minister and died in a car crash in 1953. Gus Dur then spent the remainder of his early to late teenage years in Central Java. After he completed his education, Gus Dur became a teacher and later, headmaster of a madrasah (Islamic school).
In 1963, Gus Dur received a scholarship by the Ministry of Religious Affairs to study abroad in Egypt, at the Al-Azhar University. There, Gus Dur took remedials for his bad grasp of the Arabic language and found plenty of time to enjoy himself in Egypt. It is where Gus Dur was exposed to Western media, consuming American and European movies and literature as well as football. Gus Dur then worked at the Indonesian Embassy in Egypt when the 30 September Coup broke out in Indonesia. He was given the task to clear out Indonesian students from communist ideology, a task he found frustrating as people can easily lie about their thoughts and moved to Baghdad to continue his studies and get away from all that political nonsense. Gus Dur as a student journalist, then traveled around the world, notably to Netherlands, France, Germany and Canada in order to study.
Returning to Indonesia in the 70's, Gus Dur was part of a movement of progressive Islamic intellectuals that wanted to improve the quality of Islamic education in Indonesia. He also became a journalist in Tempo, an Indonesian political magazine and Kompas, an Indonesian newspaper agency. His writings allowed him to be known as a social commentator in Indonesia, which landed him a job in Hasyim Ansari University as a dean. However, because he was deemed too good at his job, many of his coworkers resented him and he was barred from teaching inside the university. It was then he decided that he would join up his father's organization, Nahdatul Ulama (NU).
Gus Dur saw that the NU was a stagnant organization and he sought to reform the organization into becoming more modern and important in influencing the people's thoughts in Indonesia. For years, Soeharto has greatly reduced the powers of Islamic figures and political groups, seeing them as threat towards his grip on Indonesia. However, Gus Dur's ascendance as the chairman of the NU was received well by Soeharto, because Gus Dur is known for his Western education and moderate Islamic stances on politics compared to the stark raving radicals that primarily dominated the Islamic political bloc. Gus Dur used his chairmanship to reform pesantrens within Indonesia and to applicated secular policies within Islamic education which garnered massive criticism from hardliners, but praise from most Indonesians. In his second term as the NU chairman in 1989, Soeharto's power over the Indonesian Military is slowly slipping and he attempted to ingratiate himself within the Muslim constituency. Gus Dur rejected Soeharto's political maneuvering as he thought it encouraged sectarianism and moved to become more independent from Soeharto's administration. Gus Dur formed a forum of 55 intellectuals from various religious and social backgrounds, and encouraged inter-faith dialogue which led him to visit Israel. This move was widely criticized by conservatives and hardliners as Gus Dur was seen as a liberal.
The 1997 financial crisis kicked in, and it destabilized Soeharto's power, pushing many figures, including Gus Dur to move to the forefront of politics. By the time Habibie became president, Gus Dur was pressured by the NU to form his own political party out of the interest of the organization. Gus Dur was a liberal and did not want to create a political party that catered towards only one religion but he soon changed his mind to challenge the dominant Golkar and declared his party to be non-sectarian and open to all members of society. Gus Dur became a presidential candidate and after a massive political maneuvering during the elections which included talking down on Wiranto and convincing Megawati to be his vice president, Gus Dur finally became President of Indonesia.
As president, Gus Dur presided over the continuation of Habibie's 'reconstruction of democracy'. Differing from Habibie was that Gus Dur focused on reconciliation between the government and everyone else. Gus Dur strengthened Indonesian diplomacy and made several trips overseas to open up dialogue as to show that Indonesia has changed for the better. Gus Dur was heavily involved in the World Economic Forum and building bridges between Indonesia and the rest of the world. At home, Gus Dur pacified two separatist movements. He convinced the leaders of the Papua separatists that he was a force of change and encouraged the usage of the name "Papua" instead of "Irian Jaya" and in Aceh, he opened up negotiations with the Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM), signing an memorandum of understanding. He would also lift the ban on Chinese exports and socially emancipated Chinese Indonesians.
In continuing to build democracy in Indonesia and reform the government, Gus Dur attempted to sack Wiranto from his ministerial position and removed some ministers, accusing them of corruption without evidence which promptly angered other political parties. Gus Dur also sought to remove military officers who were in the way of reformation within the military and to decrease their socio-political role within the society. His dismantlement of the military's influence soured his relationship with the military. Not only that, Gus Dur somehow found himself in a situation where he was vulnerable towards accusation of corruption and collusion due to his bad political maneuvering.
By the end of 2000, a mixture of Gus Dur's liberalizing policies, drive towards the West, accusations of corruption, and deteriorating relationship with the military brew strong opposition against his administration. The final straw towards his presidency was when he made an offhanded remark that he would dissolve the parliament in a meeting with university rectors, prompted a strong reaction from the opposition and the parliament. On February 2001, members of the upper house of the parliament met to impeach and remove Gus Dur. Some members of the public, including Gus Dur's organization the Nahdatul Ulama, rose in reaction to the impeachment and rioted in Indonesian streets. Gus Dur demanded his supporters to stand down but they refused. Gus Dur moved to dissolve the upper house. In response, the upper house moved to impeach him anyways, while the military stationed a garrison in front of the National Palace, forcing him to back down. The upper house then conferred the presidency towards Gus Dur's vice president, Megawati, who became the next president and effectively removing him from power. Despite this, he still refuses to leave the National Palace, insisting he was president before leaving to the United States.
Gus Dur continued to be a
Megawati
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
Joko Widodo
