Dictator of Indonesia from 1967, and father-in-law of Prabowo Subianto, the current president. He long appointed capable, often American-educated technocrats to run the economy; Sumitro Djojohadikusumo, Prabowo's father, served as a minister under both Sukarno and Suharto, and the "Berkeley Mafia" of technocrats he trained drove the economic successes of Suharto's regime. The result was three decades of rapid development—but also a long period of enrichment for Suharto, his family and his cronies, who reached ever deeper into business, finance and the running of the state and the armed forces.
In 1965-66 hundreds of thousands of suspected communist sympathisers were killed on Suharto's path to power. Sarwo Edhie Wibowo was one of his top lieutenants in the massacres. Suharto never had to answer for these killings.
As the Asian financial crisis swept through Indonesia in 1997, the IMF offered a bail-out. Despite pleas from the IMF, regulators refused to crack down on corruption. The crisis laid bare the extent to which Suharto's circle had abused the financial system. Foreign investors' confidence collapsed in early 1998, reversing decades of growth; 36m Indonesians fell back into poverty. Amid protest, unrest and bloodletting, Suharto stepped down. His departure marked the start of reformasi, Indonesia's transition to democracy.
Prabowo allegedly worked with Islamist thugs to sow discord during the crisis—supposedly so that the unrest would allow Suharto to declare martial law and remain in power. Prabowo has always vehemently denied that he worked with the thugs.
On November 10th 2025 Prabowo formally elevated Suharto to the pantheon of national heroes. On the same day he also named several of Suharto's opponents national heroes, including Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur), a nearly blind cleric who led opposition to the regime and was elected president in the first free post-Suharto polls, and Marsinah, a labour activist murdered (and mutilated) in 1993—none of the soldiers thought responsible has been brought to justice. Sarwo Edhie Wibowo was also named a national hero. Critics say the simultaneous honouring of both those who fought for democracy and those who fought to suppress it flattens Indonesian history.
"It ain't so much the things we don't know that get us in trouble. It's the things we know that ain't so."