For one thing, he was a ruthless military general who had no qualms about resorting to violence to maintain order and stability throughout his 32-year rule in this country. 

Many can certainly debate whether Soeharto had a hand in the massacre and mass incarceration of thousands of communists in the months and years after the 1965 coup, but the fact that the pogroms continued under his watch should be enough to bring him to a human rights tribunal.

The anti-communist witch-hunt was in fact a foundational myth for the New Order regime and it was from this “original sin” that Soeharto formed the blueprint of his authoritarian tactics used throughout his regime.

From the occupation of then-East Timor in the mid-1970s, mysterious killings of thugs and criminals in the early 1980s to military operations in Aceh throughout the 1990s, Soeharto came down hard on any potential threats toward his development agenda, resulting in the deaths and disappearances of so many civilians. 

Also in the name of stability, Soeharto cracked down on any signs of dissent by banning political debates in college campuses, imposing strict censorship on the media and simplifying the country’s political system by allowing only three political parties: the United Development Party, the Indonesian Democratic Party and the Golkar Party to contest the tightly-monitored general elections.

But if there is one type of dark art that Soeharto perfected in the three decades that he was in power, one with the most deleterious impact, it is the deep-rooted culture of corruption.