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Gus Dur, Soeharto next in line for hero titles
Soeharto - Abdurrahman âGus Durâ Wahid (JP)The government has hinted that former president Abdurrahman âGus Durâ Wahid, known as a champion of pluralism, and Soeharto, who led the authoritarian New Order regime for more than three decades, will be named national heroes next year
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Soeharto - Abdurrahman âGus Durâ Wahid (JP) (JP)
Soeharto - Abdurrahman 'Gus Dur' Wahid (JP)
The government has hinted that former president Abdurrahman 'Gus Dur' Wahid, known as a champion of pluralism, and Soeharto, who led the authoritarian New Order regime for more than three decades, will be named national heroes next year.
Jimly Asshiddiqie, a member of the Title, Order of Merit and Honors Council, said that Soeharto, the country's second president, and Gus Dur, the country's fourth president and the former leader of the Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), were among 10 names considered for the title this year. In the end, however, the council decided to honor just five names.
He said the council had received Soeharto's nomination five times already and added that the council may finally confer the title on the former president when the controversy surrounding his long and authoritarian tenure had receded.
'Right now, the moment is not right. We should wait until the controversy dissipates and people accept Soeharto as a national hero voluntarily, as he was, and not by coercion,' Jimly told The Jakarta Post.
He criticized, however, the definition of a national hero in Indonesia, saying that the definition had drifted too far from it was supposed to be.
'Indonesia has too many heroes, while a great country like the United States has a small number of heroes.'
President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo bestowed national hero titles last week on five public figures for their services in helping the country during the fight for independence. The ceremony has become a part of the National Heroes Day commemoration, which falls on Nov. 10 each year.
The five heroes named this year comprised the late Bernard Wilhem Lapian, a public figure from North Sulawesi who founded two newspapers, Fadjar Kemadjoean and Semangat Hidoep, which gave voice to issues related to people's welfare and the fight against Dutch colonialism; the late police general Moehammad Jasin, who proclaimed Polisi Istimewa (Indonesian Police) under Japanese occupation on Aug. 21, 1945, four days after the country's Independence Declaration; the late Balinese figure I Gusti Ngurah Made Agung, who fought against the Dutch through the production of literature; the late Ki Bagus Hadikusumo from Yogyakarta, a figure from the country's second-largest Islamic organization, Muhammadiyah; and the late Mas Isman, also from Java, who actively campaigned for freedom, education and health and was the founder of Kosgoro 1957, a mass organization affiliated with the Golkar Party.
State Secretary Pratikno refused to comment on the possibility of a Soeharto nomination.
'The point is that the proposals [regarding the names] come from the public who submit the names to regents and mayors and later to the Social Affairs Ministry, [which will then give those names] to the Title, Order of Merit and Honors Council,' said Pratikno. 'Later, the council will submit the names to the minister's secretary and later to the state secretary, [who will] submit those to the President.'
To date, the state has conferred the title on 168 independence fighters, including a number of women. This year, the government has decided to start giving Rp 50 million (US$3,666) in allowances each year to the children or the spouses of national heroes.
