{"id":10705,"date":"2025-11-17T20:42:52","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T20:42:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/in-indonesia-gen-zs-nostalgia-for-dictator-suharto-reveals-troubling-generational-divide\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T20:42:52","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T20:42:52","slug":"in-indonesia-gen-zs-nostalgia-for-dictator-suharto-reveals-troubling-generational-divide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/in-indonesia-gen-zs-nostalgia-for-dictator-suharto-reveals-troubling-generational-divide\/","title":{"rendered":"In Indonesia, Gen Z\u2019s nostalgia for dictator Suharto reveals troubling generational divide"},"content":{"rendered":"
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JAKARTA, Nov 17 — The decision to name Indonesia’s former dictator Suharto a national hero has exposed a deep and troubling generational divide in the world’s third-largest democracy. <\/p>\n

While activists and survivors of his brutal 32-year rule are outraged, many young Indonesians, born after his fall and grappling with a modern cost of living crisis, are responding with indifference or even a dangerous nostalgia for an era they never knew.<\/p>\n

Instead of mass protests, the controversial announcement was met with small, muted demonstrations, revealing a new reality in a nation where economic anxiety is eclipsing historical memory, The Guardian<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n

For many young Indonesians struggling with rising inflation and precarious employment, the debate over Suharto’s legacy feels distant from their daily struggles.<\/p>\n

“It’s not that we don’t care about history or justice; we’re just trying to survive,” said Subhan Nur Sobah, a 32-year-old who works in education. <\/p>\n

“People tend to romanticise the Suharto era because they hear stories about how stable and prosperous it was, especially compared to today’s economic challenges.”<\/p>\n

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That sentiment is echoed by Jakarta content creator, Alma al Farisi. <\/p>\n

“Idealistically, Suharto should not even be considered a national hero,” she said<\/p>\n

“But then once we go into the outside world: we’re living and we’re going to work or we’re going to class, and it’s like: we have to live. We have to be realistic.”<\/p>\n

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<\/div>\n

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto looks on before he delivers his annual State of the Nation Address, ahead of the country’s Independence Day, in Jakarta, Indonesia, August 15, 2025. — Reuters pic<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The fading memory of violence<\/strong><\/p>\n

This indifference is fuelled by what one expert calls a failure of memory. Most of Gen Z were not alive when Suharto was forced from power in 1998, and the darkest chapters of his rule, such as the 1965-66 “communist purge” where an estimated half a million people were massacred, are largely absent from the official school curriculum.<\/p>\n

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“The memory was never properly transferred to the younger generation,” said Nathanael Gratias Sumaktoyo, an assistant professor at the National University of Singapore. <\/p>\n

He fears this historical amnesia will worsen, especially with recently announced plans to rewrite the history curriculum to emphasise “positive” national pride.<\/p>\n

For those whose families were directly affected by the regime, however, the memory is all too real. <\/p>\n

Yansen, a 22-year-old Chinese-Indonesian student, says his community still faces discrimination as a legacy of Suharto’s crackdowns. Making him a hero “is not a good decision,” he said. <\/p>\n

“There’s all this trauma, and the government still just closes their eyes.”<\/p>\n

When he posted videos online bemoaning the decision, he was met with a wave of pro-Suharto comments. Young people, he says, simply “don’t know what kind of sins Suharto did.”<\/p>\n

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\"Philippine<\/div>\n

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr speaks during a campaign rally ahead of the elections, in Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila May 9, 2025. — Reuters pic<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Controversial decision by controversial leader<\/strong><\/p>\n

The decision to bestow the award was made by Indonesian president Prabowo Subianto, Suharto’s own ex-son-in-law and a controversial former general who was himself accused of human rights abuses. <\/p>\n

His commanding election win was notably supported by a strong Gen Z backing, a trend that analysts see as part of a wider regional pattern of authoritarian nostalgia, similar to the Marcos family’s return to power in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

However, his administration has sparked concerns over increasing military influence in governance and echoes of Suharto-era authoritarianism.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In Indonesia, Gen Z’s nostalgia for dictator Suharto reveals troubling generational divide<\/sub><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JAKARTA, Nov 17 — The decision to name Indonesia’s former dictator Suharto a national hero has exposed a deep and troubling generational divide in the world’s third-largest democracy.  While activists and survivors of his brutal 32-year rule are outraged, many young Indonesians, born after his fall and grappling with a modern cost of living crisis,…<\/p>\n

Read More “In Indonesia, Gen Z\u2019s nostalgia for dictator Suharto reveals troubling generational divide”<\/span> »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10706,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}