When referring to the Suharto regime, the BBC deliberately ignored the dark side of the US’s and Britain’s role and their support of the brutal, murderous regime.
“Yet today Indonesian politics is dominated by the same powerful, wealthy figures who prospered under Suharto.”
“Indonesia has had just two directly elected presidents over a 20-year period, both of whom have been moderate, effective and popular, delivering steady economic growth.” It sounds the type of ‘democracy’ we want. After all, Indonesia is the largest ‘Muslim’ country, and that is the type of a ‘Muslim’ country we need to see.
But no, “Indonesia's democracy - the third largest in the world - appears to be in rude health.” We have heard this before: ‘India, the largest democracy in the world’.
“The Indonesian state - built up methodically by Suharto - has survived much. The violent upheavals of the late 1990s, rising jihadist terrorism in the early 2000s that many thought would unravel it, the experiment with democracy - Indonesia has absorbed it all, mellowing it in the name of stability and peace.”
Not a single word about how Suharto ‘built that state’. ‘Methodically’, the BBC’s Jonathan Head says.
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