Final Days of a Dictator

It is 4 p.m., Jan. 13, 2008.
The main entrance to Pertamina Hospital in South Jakarta is besieged by dozens of journalists.

Gen. Suharto, the 86-year old former military dictator who ruled Indonesia for more than three decades, is lying somewhere deep inside this unattractive concrete structure, dying or more precisely in a "very critical condition" after almost all organ functions failed, so his doctor said.

According to the United Nations and the World Bank, Suharto tops the list of embezzlers with an estimated $15-35 billion, followed by former Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos. An impressive achievement considering that Suharto's salary in 1999—the year he was forced to resign after massive demonstrations that shook Jakarta—was only $1,764 a month.

More than $73 billion is said to have passed through the family's hands during Suharto's 32-year rule.

On the night of Sept. 30/Oct. 1 1965, Suharto joined surviving right wing Gen. Abdul Haris Nasution to spearhead a propaganda campaign against the Communist Party of Indonesia.(P.K.I.)
What followed was a military takeover and a months long orgy of terror, the mass murder of P.K.I. members, citizens of Chinese origin, left-leaning men and women, intellectuals, artists, and anyone who was denounced by neighbors or foes.

The West did not protest. Suharto was viewed as an ally by the United States, Britain, Australia, and other nations who were delighted to have the leader of Indonesia a free-marketer and an ally in the Cold War.

Suharto may be a man responsible for more deaths than any other dictator since World War II.

Suharto may die a free man, but it is not easy to forget a million people, a million deaths.
Standing next to each other, they can fill enormous space and their screams, coming in unison, can break the walls of any hospital—even a private one. And once these screams and cries reach him, he will know that he departs a criminal.

It seems this state of affairs suggests that he has not lived a decent life, but rather has much to account for and that keeps him lingering on, dying this long death.

There is the story of a local village leader who took advantage of his position, was corrupt, took land and money from the village, and enriched himself at the expense of others. When he lay dying he could not die. So, the village came together and discussed this problem and it was decided that they would just let it all go. Not to forget. Not to forgive. But just let it go. The man quickly died soon after their meeting.

In fact, yet another side story says Suharto can’t die so easily cause he’s got too much ilmu. A designated person will have to cross a river with Soeharto’s underpants on his head so he can die.

Suharto claimed that he himself was a dukun and there is real evidence that he studied under one. Another reason he cannot die a clean fast death. The diagnosis among believers here in Solo, the heart of Javanese culture, is that powerful occult forces in his body will not let him go, that certain rituals that would cleanse his spirit have not yet been performed or that nature has not yet signaled that it is ready to receive him.

After the death of Mr. Suharto’s wife in 1996, spiritualists as well as political scientists saw Mr. Suharto becoming less deft as a ruler.
In his desperation near the end, he called in a West African spiritualist to help him.

Lucky charms that have been spiritually implanted in Mr. Suharto’s body have become malevolent and are prolonging his suffering. Spiritually, he is ready to die and should be relieved of his pain, but those charms will not release him until they have been ritually removed. A Muslim cleric named Nasruddin Ansory suggested that the removal could be done by having 40 pure-hearted people pray by his bedside.

Another solution was proposed by a spiritualist named Permadi, who is also a member of Parliament saying the spirits would release Mr. Suharto if he apologized to Sukarno, the man he supplanted as president in 1967.

Suharto Died — 27 January 2008 aged 86.