I worked in Indonesia from 1984-99 and lived there the last eight years. During that entire time, and for a period of 32 years ending in 1998, Indonesia was ruled by the dictator Suharto. While much is written of the corruption during the Suharto regime and his family's accumulation of a fortune totaling in the billions of U. S. Dollars, there are some lessons to be learned from how he governed:
- Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world, yet Suharto, a Muslim himself, fervently suppressed the Islamic fundamentalist movement in Indonesia. He realized the inherently destabilizing effect of fundamentalism in Indonesia and the negative effect it would have on social and economic progress. Lesson: Fundamentalism (in any religion) is inherently destabilizing
- Suharto was very concerned about the increasing influence of China in Southeast Asia, in part because he had overthrown a Communist regime supported by the Chinese government, but also because he realized early on the economic and military threat that China posed in the region. Lesson: Beware of China
- Suharto is one of the few dictators in history who focused on economic growth and greatly improved the living standards of his people (from African poverty levels at the beginning of his regime to conditions where a middle class started to emerge by 1992). Lesson: Successful economic management sustains governments
While it could be correctly argued that all of these lessons were self-serving and in Suharto's best interest, I do not think we should take away from their merit because we learned them from a dictator. The other lesson I learned in Indonesia was never do business with the dictator. I worked in Indonesia for 15 years with Hari Darmawan, the founder of Matahari, the largest department store chain in the country. Hari steadfastly believed that one never did business with Suharto's family and we succeeded because we never relied on government largess or preferential deals. Matahari became a US$ 1 billion company and survived the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 in tact and financially sound because we were self-sufficient. Many of Suharto's cronies met with financial ruin in 1997.
I never met Suharto but I did have one dealing with him, albeit indirectly. A foreign employee and friend of mine had a heart attack in Indonesia and was taken to the new state-of-the art heart hospital in Jakarta. We learned that Suharto personally was following the status of my friend's case. Turned out the first seven foreigners taken to the hospital had all died (contaminated distilled water that only affected foreigners), and Suharto wanted to know if recent changes at the hospital were working. Suharto's inquiries, of course, prompted an unheard of level of service for my friend. My friend made a full recovery, paid a bill that was 20 percent of the cost of a U.S. bill for similar treatment and sent Suharto a thank you card for his interest in his case.
Less there be any confusion, I do not endorse dictators, but there are lessons that can be learned from them and some times they even do some good--as my friend would attest.
Suharto died January 27.