In Death, Ex-Dictator Elicits Grief and Tributes

SOLO, Indonesia — _ Former President Suharto was buried in a family tomb on a sacred hillside here on Monday, one day after his death in Jakarta, embraced by many as a great leader despite his reign as a brutal and corrupt dictator.

In a ceremony that mixed Javanese, Islamic and military traditions, his body was placed in a marble tomb in a family mausoleum, beside that of his wife, Siti Hartinah, who died in 1996, and those of three other relatives.

President Susilo Bambamb Yudhoyono and other leading figures attended the funeral, arriving here in central Java in a fleet of military aircraft.

Television stations maintained live coverage through much of Sunday afternoon and Monday, filling the pauses with sentimental documentaries that could have been filmed during his 32 years of strongman rule, one of them titled, “Farewell, Great General.”

Surging, shouting crowds had mobbed the ambulance that drove his body from a hospital to his home in central Jakarta, where he had lived since being ousted from power 10 years ago.

Mr. Yudhoyono, who like many of the country’s current leaders owes his career to Suharto, declared a week of mourning and addressed the nation in something close to a whisper.

“I invite all the people of Indonesia to pray that the deceased’s good deeds and dedication to the nation may be accepted by God the almighty,” he said. “Suharto has done a great service to the nation.”

He then joined mourners at Mr. Suharto’s home in central Jakarta, where the president was shown on television praying at the coffin, which was draped with a white sheet.

Mr. Suharto, 86, died Sunday after three weeks in the intensive care ward of a Jakarta hospital, where doctors said he had been suffering from multiple organ failure.

His long illness was the occasion for a national debate over his legacy and over calls to drop corruption charges against him, but the negative voices were mostly quiet on Sunday.

Mr. Suharto was ousted by a popular uprising in May 1998. He had brought his nation from poverty to development, but he was one of the most brutal dictators of his time, responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people. The United Nations also lists him as the most corrupt leader of his time.

When his death was announced, as if fulfilling the predictions of mystics, wind and heavy rain lashed the hillside where he was to be buried.

“The tears of Indonesia are raining on me,” said an Indonesian photographer by telephone from the hillside.

Soon after that a small earthquake struck near Yogyakarta, close to Mr. Suharto’s birthplace.

The emotional heart of the day was the appearance at the hospital of Mr. Suharto’s oldest daughter, Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, at a news conference where his death was announced.

Mr. Suharto’s chief doctor, Marjo Subiandono, spoke first, opening with a phrase from the Koran, “To God we belong, and to God we shall return.” He gave the time of death as 1:10 p.m.

Mr. Suharto’s daughter, known by her nickname, Tutut, wearing a black Muslim head scarf in mourning, took a microphone, leaned forward and coughed back tears before speaking.

“In the name of the family, I ask forgiveness for any mistakes my father made,” she said in a tiny, barely audible voice. “I hope his spirit is accepted by God.” Her pale face was a blur in the flashes of the cameras.

“I cannot bear the sadness,” she said, putting down the microphone.

Mr. Suharto’s six children are among the wealthiest people in Indonesia, accused along with their father of enriching themselves through graft and manipulated business deals.

At one point during Mr. Suharto’s illness, the attorney general was reported to have offered to settle the only outstanding corruption case against Mr. Suharto. But there were conflicting reports over whether the idea was initiated by the government or by his family.

The civil case, which seeks $1.4 billion in compensation for money said to have been stolen through a charitable foundation, could proceed against his heirs, said legal scholars quoted in the news media.

Mr. Suharto had avoided trial on corruption charges because his lawyers argued that a series of strokes had weakened his mind too much for him to participate.

He had spent the past decade living quietly, sidelined in the vigorous democracy that almost immediately filled the vacuum left after his downfall.

The decline of his health revived his place in the public eye and reinvigorated debate over his legacy.

Indonesia was transfixed by sometimes lurid daily reports of his fluctuating health —one day an “amazing recovery,” the next day “very critical.” As recently as Saturday, doctors were talking about the possibility of moving him from the intensive care unit and beginning rehabilitation exercises.

Alongside the coverage of high-ranking officials praying at his coffin on Sunday, television documentaries presented Mr. Suharto to the nation in a way that he had not been seen for a decade.

There he was, on one station after another, as he used to be: visiting farmers, catching a fish, playing golf, meeting foreign leaders, receiving applause — a benevolently smiling father figure.
By SETH MYDANS

A President Like My Father

OVER the years, I’ve been deeply moved by the people who’ve told me they wished they could feel inspired and hopeful about America the way people did when my father was president. This sense is even more profound today. That is why I am supporting a presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries, Barack Obama.

My reasons are patriotic, political and personal, and the three are intertwined. All my life, people have told me that my father changed their lives, that they got involved in public service or politics because he asked them to. And the generation he inspired has passed that spirit on to its children. I meet young people who were born long after John F. Kennedy was president, yet who ask me how to live out his ideals.

Sometimes it takes a while to recognize that someone has a special ability to get us to believe in ourselves, to tie that belief to our highest ideals and imagine that together we can do great things. In those rare moments, when such a person comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible.

We have that kind of opportunity with Senator Obama. It isn’t that the other candidates are not experienced or knowledgeable. But this year, that may not be enough. We need a change in the leadership of this country — just as we did in 1960.

Most of us would prefer to base our voting decision on policy differences. However, the candidates’ goals are similar. They have all laid out detailed plans on everything from strengthening our middle class to investing in early childhood education. So qualities of leadership, character and judgment play a larger role than usual.

Senator Obama has demonstrated these qualities throughout his more than two decades of public service, not just in the United States Senate but in Illinois, where he helped turn around struggling communities, taught constitutional law and was an elected state official for eight years. And Senator Obama is showing the same qualities today. He has built a movement that is changing the face of politics in this country, and he has demonstrated a special gift for inspiring young people — known for a willingness to volunteer, but an aversion to politics — to become engaged in the political process.

I have spent the past five years working in the New York City public schools and have three teenage children of my own. There is a generation coming of age that is hopeful, hard-working, innovative and imaginative. But too many of them are also hopeless, defeated and disengaged. As parents, we have a responsibility to help our children to believe in themselves and in their power to shape their future. Senator Obama is inspiring my children, my parents’ grandchildren, with that sense of possibility.

Senator Obama is running a dignified and honest campaign. He has spoken eloquently about the role of faith in his life, and opened a window into his character in two compelling books. And when it comes to judgment, Barack Obama made the right call on the most important issue of our time by opposing the war in Iraq from the beginning.

I want a president who understands that his responsibility is to articulate a vision and encourage others to achieve it; who holds himself, and those around him, to the highest ethical standards; who appeals to the hopes of those who still believe in the American Dream, and those around the world who still believe in the American ideal; and who can lift our spirits, and make us believe again that our country needs every one of us to get involved.

I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.
By CAROLINE KENNEDY