The list of nominees for new national heroes this year revealed several names that have stirred up controversy.

Last year, no new national heroes were announced by President Prabowo Subianto, who, immediately after his inauguration toward the end of October 2024, started his overseas state visits.

On Sept. 18, 2024, the Golkar Party wrote a letter to the Speaker of People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) requesting a review of an assembly decree (TAP), specifically Article 4 of TAP MPR No. 11/1998, which explicitly included former president Soeharto's name in the resolution which called for a clean government that must be free from practices of corruption, collusion and nepotism. 

A response signed by the MPR's 10 leaders was issued, stating the decree would remain in effect. According to the assembly leadership, "on May 11, 2006, the public attorneys decided that the prosecution of Soeharto had to cease on account that [...] the former president's permanent health issues had made further proceedings impossible. On July 9, 2007, however, the Attorney General's Office brought a civil suit against Soeharto. Yayasan Supersemar was another party the Attorney General contested. As a result, the court, through a number of district court rulings as well as the decision of the Supreme Court in 2015 on the court decision review, ordered Yayasan Supersemar to pay damages to the state, a portion of which had been paid." They acknowledged that the foundation had to pay off the prescribed damages. 

Soeharto died on Jan. 27, 2008. On July 9, 2009, at Hotel Lorin in Karanganyar, Central Java, a seminar was held by the National Committee of Indonesian Youth (KNPI) Surakarta to discuss the nomination of president Soeharto as a national hero. Three people were invited to speak: Karanganyar regent Rina Iriani Sri Ratnaningsih, historian Budiawan of Gadjah Mada University Yogyakarta and myself. 

The Karanganyar regent said it would be up to the people,"ff they want it, I will let this recommendation be known to our provincial and national governments." Budiawan argued that "Soeharto would be remembered as a controversial figure in national history if we named him one".

I expressed at the meeting a Jakarta layman's view on Soeharto, one which is paradoxical and worth digging into. The former president was a man who was "both Indonesia's great developer and mightiest destroyer". How could the development achieved over the three decades of the New Order regime be considered significant when, during the same period, massive environmental destruction and many serious violations of human rights were reported?