Unspun

The one Suharto analysis you should read

with 4 comments

Unspun has not hig regard for the FEER but thinks highly of Jeremy Wagstaff, a former correspondent for the Asian Wall Street Journal and now a tech columnist, a blogger and an author to boot. In the analytical piece below you will see why.

Way before he reinvented himself into a tech columnist Jeremy was covering politics and the economy in Indonesia. He is one of the rare journalists Unspun knows who 1. can write well (most can’t, some even can’t spell or string two sentences together – they have copyeditors to do that for them) and 2. has enough empathy and intelligence to go below surface appeareances to tap into a nation’s psyche.The result is an article that captures the complexity of Suharto the man who came to lead a nation in waiting. Well done Jeremy and for heaven’s sake get that book on Suharto out soon.

clipped from www.feer.com Remembering Suharto Published by admin at 12:27 pm under History, Politics, Southeast Asia by Jeremy WagstaffThe only time Suharto was seen crying was when his wife, Ibu Tien, died in 1996. As with most the key watersheds in the New Order, the moment is cloaked in mystery. But his tears told us more about the man than anything else he said or did in 31 years of being Indonesia’s president. Some time between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. on Sunday, April 28, Ibu Tien had awoken. She slept alone: They had been married 48 years but in recent times had grown apart. She had grown tired of the trappings of power, and had watched as her children’s avarice destroyed the family and as her husband renege on promises to step down. The previous day she had visited her beloved horticultural garden outside Jakarta. None of her family was with her and, to those who accompanied her, it seemed as if she was saying goodbye.

4 Responses

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1. [...] recommends an article “that captures the complexity of Suharto the man who came to lead a nation in waiting” [...]

   Global Voices Online » Indonesia: Must Read Article on Suharto

   January 29, 2008 at 2:48 am

   Reply
2. Former President Soeharto Dies

   General (retired.) Soeharto, the second Indonesian president, who has been in a very critical condition for few weeks, has died today in the RSPP (Rumah Sakit Pustat Peramina) hospital Jakarta. Indonesian government has decided to have a  national mou…

   Blogger Indonesia A. Fatih Syuhud Weblog

   January 29, 2008 at 11:15 am

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3. Don’t know if anyone ever thought this whole thing like one of my relative write on his blog. Check this blog http://www.budiwidayanto.blogspot.com

   

   triedtobehonest

   February 2, 2008 at 7:29 pm

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4. So the rumours at the time that she stepped between sons Bambang and Tommy who were having an almighty row, one of whom had a loaded gun which went off, aren’t true?

   

   Jakartass

   February 2, 2008 at 9:33 pm

   Reply