"Our son-of-a-bitch"

[sabotabby]

Ah, so it's time for me to engage in another tasteless and immoral—intolerant, even!—celebration of a human being's death. That would be Suharto, the murderer of anywhere from possibly almost 2 million people. Already, the good patriots at FreeRepublic.com are mourning him as "our son-of-a-bitch," keeping the world safe from Islamo-communism, etc. And of course, the current American administration is totally sad about it. Here's a good article on Western complicity with Suharto's crimes. (Thanks gordonzola.)

I wonder how far this rehabilitation will spread. You see it whenever any bloodthirsty former leader dies, be it Pinochet or Reagan. The deceased was "controversial"; he employed brutal tactics to suppress his opponents. But he fought the good fight against communism and, most important, stabilized the almighty economy. It doesn't matter how many brown people get killed or how many civil liberties get trampled, as long as there's some economic growth. You know how it is.

In 1998, I was 19 years old, and like many others who had been involved (peripherally, in my case) with the East Timor Action Network, I celebrated Suharto's downfall. Many of us hoped that Suharto—and the Western interests that supported him—would finally be held accountable for their crimes against humanity. But, like Pinochet, in the end he got off easily—dying in bed instead of in jail or in front of a firing squad.

This said, the world is minus one monster today. Good riddance. I think I might crack open that champagne tonight.

EDIT: lopukhov says it better.

Comments

[shoocu-shoocu.livejournal.com]

Amen to that!!!!!

[sabotabby]

Ding dong, witch dead, and so forth.

[terry-terrible.livejournal.com]

Some Indonesian journalist was commenting on NPR today that if Suharto had been tried then Indonesians could "forgive and forget" him because his economic growth stratagies were oh-so-wonderful and out-weighed his "mistakes" in the long run.

Is there ever an end to the stupid?

[sabotabby]

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."

[smhwpf.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah. I mean I always try to think "No man is an island, ask not for whom the bell tolls..." but when it comes to someone like Suharto? Seems a bit hollow. Mind you, I did see Jose Ramos Horta call for East Timorese to forgive Suharto before he died, so if they can - but I suspect that was more political expediency than anything else. (East Timor was my big campaigning thing of the mid-to-late '90s.)

I can't believe what a soft spot the BBC seems to have for the bastard. They're being very easy on his record now; and I remember the day he fell the BBC correspondent in Indonesia described him as a 'relatively benign dictator'. Sheesh.

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

I mean I always try to think "No man is an island, ask not for whom the bell tolls..." but when it comes to someone like Suharto? Seems a bit hollow

//grins Between that and the Buffy/Faith icon -- oh yes, me too. I am enjoying the surge of nasty glee.

[smhwpf.livejournal.com]

I find his death somehow less satisfying than Pinochet's. I mean, both evaded justice, but it seemed like Pinochet's legacy was rather more thoroughly erased by the time he died. Things have certainly improved a lot in Indonesia, but the military still has an awful lot of influence and West Papua is still under the heel though East Timor is free and Aceh at peace. There were parties in Santiago, don't think they're really happening in Jakarta.

Ha. Just realised you are a friend of both sabotabby and liz_marcs. Such a person should be on my f-list! Hope you don't mind if I add you?

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

I find his death somehow less satisfying than Pinochet's

Yeah....also, altho this is more sort of PR stuff, more people in the West seemed convinced Pinochet was, at least, a Bad Person, or at least knew who he was, even if it was through, God help us all, Sting or something. I doubt there's going to be any general name recognition for Suharto, unless, I dunno, people remember The Year of Living Dangerously because it had Mel Gibson in it or something. But of course that doesn't matter as much as his murderousness and awful legacy, the bastard.

Do not mind at all! //goes over to check out your LJ

[sabotabby]

East Timor was my big campaigning thing of the mid-to-late '90s.

One of mine, too. This was when I was in high school, and I was part of Amnesty and our little social justice/world issues group. And then, of course, in '97 there was the APEC summit in Vancouver where anti-Suharto protesters were peppersprayed.

I'm shocked at the BBC. "Relatively benign," indeed. My friend brownfist lived in Jakarta at the time—Suharto's bastards shot one of his friends to death.

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

Oh, he DIED? Awesome! Fucking murderous bastard.

[sabotabby]

I was getting a bit worried when he was staging an "amazing recovery." Nope, death confirmed by a number of news services.

tramp the dirt down!

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

I was getting a bit worried when he was staging an "amazing recovery."

HA. "Miraculous recoveries" should be styled "diabolical recoveries" when they happen to people like that, you ask me. NOT THAT HE GOT ONE, HA.

(Also, iconloff.)

[jvmatucha.livejournal.com]

What drives me crazy about all of this is the staggering number of people who still don't know anything about the atrocities of East Timor. I even know activists around here who don't know much about it at all. If all those "journalists" had done their job and really told the story, this prick would be a modern day Hitler.

[sabotabby]

Journalists always seemed to like him for some reason. I remember being so grossed in '97 when the Canadian government was kissing his ass—long after it was common knowledge in these parts as to how many people he'd killed.

It always reminds me of a song...

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

It would be swell,
to see some folk burn in hell
but when they go
it's just as pleasant to know
that the dead only quickly decay
they don't go about being born and reborn
and rising and falling like souffle
the dead only quickly decay

-Neil Hannon (I think. Either that or it's the dude from the Magnetic Fields)

Re: It always reminds me of a song...

[sabotabby]

I like the Magnetic Fields. What song is that?

Re: It always reminds me of a song...

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/d/divine+comedy/the+dead+only+quickly_10086084.html

[bike4fish.livejournal.com]

I remember when he came to power (yes, I was a kid) and how the US government was praising him for saving Indonesia from the Evil Commies while ignoring the bloodbath.

(This was not long after I watched B-52's take off daily to bomb Vietnam, and not long after my mother had refused to shake hands with Hubert Humphrey (then the US VP) at a reception because of the war. About the same time, my uncle quit an engineering job in Iran when he found that the Iranian government was using the military equipment it had been supplied by the US to massacre Kurds. I suppose experiences like those heightened my awareness of how US foreign policy is pursued.)

[sabotabby]

What gets me is that the US government is still praising him, albeit not so enthusiastically. Then again, I might be disappointed if they didn't.

[sarars.livejournal.com]

that's OK with me. There's no need for that genocidal man in this world.

[sarars.livejournal.com]

and I like your "purged" icon!!

[sabotabby]

Me too. I normally use it for banning people or talking about leftist sectarianism, but hey, it works for "PURGED FROM LIFE" too.

[roter-terror.livejournal.com]

Good riddance, I agree. Interesting is that Zbigniew Brzezinski, president Carter's national security advisor, encouraged Carter to loosen the 'restrictions' on selling arms to Suharto's Indonesia. Now Brzezinski is endorsing Barack Obama, along with many neo-cons. And for good reason:

In his speech, Obama called for an increase in defence spending and an extra 65,000 soldiers and 27,000 marines to “stay on the offense” against terrorism and ensure America had “the strongest, best-equipped military in the world”. He talked about building democracies, stopping weapons of mass destruction and the right to take unilateral action to protect US “vital interests” if necessary, as well as the importance of building alliances.

“Personally, I liked it,” Kagan wrote.

Sort of a cheap way to work in a bash on Obama, but I really didn't have anything to say about Suharto.

[sabotabby]

That's okay. I hate Democrat attempts to prove that they're more hawkish and have bigger penises than Republicans.

[lopukhov.livejournal.com]

I was 12 and 3/4 on 12 May 1998 when those kids got shot at Universitas Trisakti. We didn't live in Jakarta at that time, so it was more or less safe where we lived (on a completely different island). But boy, let me tell you, when they said Indonesia plunged into chaos, they really meant Java with Jakarta at the epicentre of the violence. All because some greedy, senile, paranoid shithead who has received US support since the 70s (maybe even since 1965) got more greedy, senile, and paranoid and refused to step down.

[sabotabby]

It's kind of amazing, really. He was a monster after '65 and just kept going with it.