Suharto Falls in Indonesia

In May 1998, Suharto resigned as president of Indonesia after more than three decades in power, ending the authoritarian "New Order" regime. His fall, driven by economic collapse and mass protest, opened the way for democratic reform in the world's fourth most populous country and its largest Muslim-majority nation.

Suharto rose to power in the mid-1960s, after an alleged coup attempt in 1965 led the army, under his command, to crush the Indonesian Communist Party. The ensuing anti-communist purge killed hundreds of thousands of people, though estimates vary widely. Suharto gradually displaced the founding president, Sukarno, and formally took the presidency in 1967-68. His New Order government delivered decades of steady economic growth, rising living standards, and close ties with Western countries, but it did so by limiting political parties, controlling the press, relying on the military, and tolerating widespread corruption, with his family and associates prospering visibly.

The turning point came with the Asian financial crisis, which began in Thailand in mid-1997 and spread across the region. Indonesia's currency, the rupiah, lost much of its value, banks faltered, prices rose sharply, and unemployment grew. An International Monetary Fund rescue program required reforms and the removal of subsidies, and the resulting price increases fueled public anger. Suharto was nonetheless re-elected by the legislature in March 1998, as he had been repeatedly before.

Protests, led largely by university students, grew through the spring. In May, security forces shot and killed several students at Trisakti University in Jakarta, which sparked days of rioting in the capital and other cities. Many people died, and ethnic Chinese Indonesians were targeted by looting, violence, and, according to reports, sexual assault; the full scale and responsibility for these events remain disputed and have never been fully investigated. As unrest spread, support drained away from Suharto, including among allies and cabinet ministers. On 21 May he announced his resignation, and Vice President B. J. Habibie took office.

The consequences were far-reaching. Habibie freed political prisoners, loosened press controls, and allowed new parties. Free parliamentary elections took place in 1999, and constitutional amendments in the early 2000s limited presidential terms, strengthened the legislature, and introduced direct presidential elections. Power was also decentralized to regions. In 1999, East Timor voted for independence amid violence, a process that ended Indonesian rule there.

Suharto himself was never convicted of corruption, as courts cited his poor health, and he died in 2008. Indonesia's democracy has endured, though debates continue over military influence, corruption, and accountability for past abuses.