https://www.nytimes.com/1972/02/25/archives/suharto-vows-to-crush-critics-of-wifes-amusementpark-plan.html
Suharto Vows to Crush Critics of Wife's Amusement‐Park Plan By JAMES P. STERBAFEB. 25, 1972 - JAKARTA, Indonesia, Feb. 21 —A seemingly trivial issue, a proposed Disneyland‐style park promoted by the President's wife, has brought to public view the strong and sometimes harsh, grip of President Suharto's military regime. Students and others protesting the project as wasteful have been beaten by thugs, arrested for questioning and held for days and weeks at a time without charges. Demonstrations against the project have been banned and President Suharto vowed last month in an emotional speech to use full military force to crush opposition to it. In the speech, delivered at the dedication of a hospital Jan. 6 and carried later on, national televition and radio, General Suharto accused opponents of his wife's project of trying to discredit the army and drive him from power. Speech Termed ‘Shocking’ Foreign economists who attended the dedication termed the speech “shocking” and “irrational” and similar in tone to those of the late President Sukarno. The President said at one point: “I don't hesitate to return to the firmness I showed on Oct. 1, 1965.!’ That was the day ‘he assumed power in the wake of an attempted Communist coup. It began one of the worst bloodbaths in history; hundreds of thousands of suspected Communists and innocents were slaughtered. Indonesia has moved slowly toward economic stability after the shambles left by President Sukarno. The quiet leadership of President Suharto has been praised by economists.; But below the surface, charges of corruption, fiscal mismanagement, intolerance of dissent and police‐state tactics remain. The project, called Indonesia in Miniature, is being promoted by Our Hope Foundation, quasi‐commerial organization made up predominantly of the wives of generals. Mrs. Tien Suharto is the most prominent. She has said the wives got the idea after visiting Disneyland in California, Timland (Thailand in Miniature) in Bangkok and a Philippines‐inminiature project in Manila. Estimates of the cost of the project range from $13‐million to more than $30‐million. The Government has said that no national budget funds would be used and that the money would come from fund‐raising.. Critics charge that regardless of the money's origin it will be wastefully spent in a nation that is $5‐billion in debt, dependent on $610‐million this year in foreign aid and in urgent need of hospitals and schools. If Mrs. Suharto raises $30million for an amusement park, aid‐granting countries will raise more than an eyebrow, economic planners contend. They contend this privately, however, for no one with a Government job thinks he will last long after criticizing the President's wife. A small group of students, including some student leaders who helped the army overthrow President Sukarno, began protesting when it became questionable whether the project would be private. Mrs. Suharto was allowed to make a fund appeal at a governors’ conference and asked each governor to raise more than $100,000. The acting governor of Jakarta, Lieut. Gen Ali Sadikin, was appointed to oversee the project, and the President's chief political trouble‐shooter, Maj. Gen. All Murtopo, was made a special adviser. Muted Newspaper Criticism Student protests have been held in most university towns and several newspapers have condemmed the project indirectly. The paper Indonesia Raya, edited by Moctar Lubis, the nation's best‐known journalist, said: “Since Mrs. Tien Suharto announced her miniproject the waves have rolled to all corners of Indonesia and [the minds, emotions and actions of many people.” The newspaper went on to say that businessmen might support the project to obtain tax exemptions and added that it had learned that state‐owned banks had compiled lists of clients to be asked for donations. When a group of students staged a sit‐in at the project's headquarters in December, four were wounded by gunshots and others received knife wounds in an attack by a group of young men. The police were nowhere about. Since then several student leaders and at least one newspaper editor, Aristides Katoppo, an opponent of the project, have been arrested for questioning. Arief Budiman, an opposition leader, was released two days ago after being detained for nearly a month. Some members of a small group of Western‐educated economists, who have called President Suharto their best student, were privately aghast at the project but reportedly felt unable to challenge the President's wife. When it became substantial political issue some of them met with members of similar group in the armed forces who agreed to urge the President to call it off. President Suharto is reported to have agreed but less than week later he made his emotional speech, a speech that led Kompas, a respected newspaper, to say: “Generally, the public has been shocked.” A Loss of Face? Some Indonesians are now contending that the President lost both face and influence by leaving the impression that he could not control his wife and by reacting out of all proportion to the size of the issue. “Javanese have ‘an extremely refined sense of proportidn” an American consultant here said. “A response is supposed to be perfectly in line with the size of the issue or threat.” Student opposition has since quieted, but the’ issue is still the main topic in Jakarta. There is gossip about Mrs. Suharto's business dealings and her power within the family and outside it. Indonesians note that she was higher born than her commoner husband and speculate that that might have much to do with their relationship. Corruption is commonplace in Indonesia. No one dares to say it in public, but gossipers swap tales of the President's wife using her prestige to gain private wealth to the point where she has acquired a nickname, Madame Ten Percent, a play on her first name Tien. But she has never been publicly accused of wrong dealing.
