I haven't read about this in detail but unless a HUGE conspiracy took place and it was all bluff.. then.. yeah.. goodbye Pak Harto.
I am not sad because after all, we know that he was no angel. But if I have to choose to be sad, then I would choose to be sad over his death, and not someone who I only got to know thru movies.
In Pak Harto, for all his crimes, we have an ex-president who truly measures up to other great leaders in other countries.
Surely no one after him was big enough to fill his shoes.
Great leaders are not always good men. Great politicians are seldom saints.
You may not love them for who they are. But you should at least respect them for what they have done.
Critics will try hard to prove that Suharto has done more harm than good to Indonesia but as the guy in Ratatouille said (oh gosh.. I am in danger of using his quote too much): "it's free to criticise.."
And no one of those critics have actually done anything much for our country- not that I know of.
Lee Kuan Yew had this to say when he visited Pak Harto in hospital,
“I feel sad to see a very old friend with whom I had worked closely over the last 30 years, not really getting the honours that he deserves. He deserves recognition for what he did. And the younger generations – both in Indonesia and in the world – do not remember where Indonesia started. I do. That’s why I came here to visit him.
“He gave Indonesia progress and development. He educated the population. He built roads and infrastructure. And from Sukarno’s konfrontasi and other foreign policy excesses, he stabilised international relations, cooperated in ASEAN and made ASEAN more successful than SARC in South Asia. And today, we have a stable Southeast Asia."
That's a great man talking about his peer.
Indeed.. it took an LKY to truly appreciate Pak Harto's leadership.
He probably regretted many decisions that he took over his 86 years of life.
He should be.
But there are also millions of nobodies who die regretting their wasted lives.
That's worse.
I am not sure if I would see him in heaven.
Probably not.
But if I could somehow see him one day, then I only have one thing to say:
Respect!
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