For others, the move is also a red flag for things to come under Prabowo, who was a special forces commander under Suharto aside from being married to his daughter before the two were divorced after Suharto’s ouster. Prabowo has also been accused of human rights violations in Timor-Leste by troops under his command, although he has denied the charges.
“Prabowo can do everything that President Suharto did because he is protected by his heroism,” said Marzuki Darusman, a former attorney general who was also the head of 1998 riots fact-finding team.
Marzuki specifically pointed to the expanded role for the military that has already taken place since Prabowo took office last year.
WHITEWASHING HISTORY
Even after his death, Suharto’s party, Golkar, remains a major political force which backs Prabowo in his current presidency, and holds key ministries in his cabinet.
Political analyst Kevin O’Rourke, author of the book “Reformasi: The Struggle for Power in Post-Soeharto Indonesia,” said naming Suharto a national hero could whitewash history and be an attempt to restore some authoritarianism, although it would not be easy.
“It’s quite hard to put democracy back in the box when people are used to it,” he said. He added that the problem was that, for many Indonesians, the Suharto era is a remote era.
Half of Indonesia’s population would not have been born or be old enough to remember the era, according to official statistics.
But many still remember the hardships. A group of people, known as the Aksi Kamisan has held silent vigils outside the presidential palace in Jakarta every Thursday for nearly 20 years, dressing in black and demanding justice for excesses endured under Suharto.
Many of them say they still do not know the whereabouts of loved ones who went missing under his rule.
Officials have defended the move to nominate Suharto for the title, with Culture Minister Fadli Zon saying the government had conducted research and all candidates, including Suharto, had met the requirements.
Fadli also said Suharto’s role in mass killings in 1965 that ultimately spelled the end of Sukarno’s rule was never proven. Historians say about 500,000 people were killed.
Indonesia has never investigated the killings.
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