TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsPositive online sentiment greets Soeharto’s national hero title
Drone Emprit analyst Rizal Nova Mujahid said generational factors partly explained the contrasting opinions across platforms, with Facebook’s overwhelmingly positive posts largely coming from older users.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Siti Hardijanti Rukmana talks with Bambang Trihatmodjo standing beside the photograph of former Indonesian president Soeharto, as Soeharto receives the title of a national hero during National Heroes' Day at the State Palace in Jakarta, Indonesia, Nov. 10, 2025. (Reuters/Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana)
T
he government’s decision to name former president Soeharto a national hero has drawn largely positive reactions across social media, except on X, despite sharp criticism from human rights groups over his three decades of authoritarian rule.
Soeharto was among ten figures conferred the national hero title by President Prabowo Subianto, his former son-in-law, during a ceremony at the State Palace on Monday to mark National Heroes Day.
The move immediately reignited public debate over how Indonesia remembers its past, particularly the legacy of the late strongman who ruled from 1967 to 1998. Rights groups and historians have long accused Soeharto’s regime of widespread human rights abuses and systemic repression, warning that such recognition risks legitimizing state violence and erasing victims’ suffering.
Throughout his 32-year rule, Soeharto oversaw a series of major rights violations, including the penembakan misterius (mysterious shootings) between 1982 and 1985, in which thousands of suspected criminals were summarily executed by what many believed were state-sanctioned death squads.
His government was also linked to the 1984 Tanjung Priok massacre, the 1989 Talangsari killings in Lampung and the May 1998 riots, which led to hundreds of deaths and the abduction of pro-democracy activists in the final days of his rule.
Read also: Prabowo honors Soeharto, raising fears of authoritarian resurgence
Despite this record, the late leader continues to attract “nostalgia” among segments of the public who associate his era with economic stability and social order, sentiments that have become more pronounced amid today’s rising living costs and political uncertainty, a recent report released by big data consultancy Drone Emprit highlighted.
