Memories of Life Under the New Order

People always expect the next generation to fix things. When the government is messing up, when repression and oppression run wild, it's often young people who are the first to hit the streets in protest. That doesn't really happen all that much anymore, but back in the late '90s it did. Students took to the streets to protest Gen. Suharto's repressive New Order regime.

The country was a mess back then. The economy was running on empty and people were pretty pissed off. But the student protests of '98 were just the culmination of years of civil disobedience and activism challenging the limits of what, exactly, was safe to say during the New Order years.

Today, a lot of people seem to have forgotten what it was actually like living in Suharto's Indonesia. There are stickers and shirts everywhere with an image of the elderly Suharto asking, "wasn't it better back in my time?"

So was it? We reached out to people who were alive back then to hear what it was like.

VICE: What was life like in the 1990s?
Maarif Syahed: I was in middle school then and, in 1997, I graduated from high school. Just like other kids in Aceh, after graduating from high school I helped my parents at the plantation, and then, after that, I moved to Banda Aceh to study at IAIN. In 1998, there was a demo to demilitarize Aceh. Generally, people were financially struggling.

What did it mean to be rebellious, at the time?
Students were, at the time starting to show resistance toward the injustices that were happening all over. I remember that there was a warning that students shouldn't join organization that the government thought were "dangerous."

Some people believe that students were free to do whatever they wanted at the time, as long as they didn't criticize the government.
That's not true. Everybody was struggling.

What did you think of the New Order government back then?
There was a lot of violence that was caused by the authoritarian regime. For people like me, it was hard to expect there would always be food on the table.

In terms of the economy, is it better now?
It was harder back then, that's for sure. Now, we're free to be a member of any movements or organizations. People aren't oppressed, either, these days.

VICE: What were you doing in the ‘90s?
Dessy Badriah: I was in elementary school, in South Aceh. There was conflict all around me back then. I couldn’t go anywhere.

So it was pretty bad?
Like I said, everywhere there was a conflict. We were under tight supervision. I was so scared I that I would get shot.

What was the worst thing you think you did back then?
We used to steal fruit from other people’s trees and play in the river. I lived in the kampung, so the worst we did was pull pranks on our classmates.

Did you ever criticize the government?
We were living under so much pressure. There was no social media back then. If things back then were like they are today, we would've demanded that the government stop the war [in Aceh]. But we couldn't. Like I said, the pressure was high.

Was it easier to make a living back then, or is it easier today?
Not much has changed. I wasn’t exactly poor back then, and I am not now either. So things pretty much stayed the same.

VICE: What were you doing in 1998?
Bayu Widodo: I was 19 in 1998. I was so young. I went to Sarjanawiyata Tamansiswa University in '97, and in '99 I transferred to the Indonesia Art Institute in Yogyakarta. I was the second generation of Taring Padi. I joined them in 2001.

Taring Padi has always been critical of the government. Did face you a lot of backlash back then?
Yes, especially from the mass organizations (ormas). Some of them used to operate like the police. We were attacked and accused of engaging in premarital sex, and of selling drugs. So in the end, people were really misinformed about us.

What was it like to be young back then?
I was so happy and I read a lot of leftist books, on Che Guevara, by Pram, Tan Malaka. I was pretty serious. Back then, we regularly held discussions, book talks, we made art, we made critiques on art, we were on a roll.

What did you guys do that were considered so rebellious at the time?
We used to get drunk, get stoned, it was so safe. So yeah: booze, weed, and some mild drugs.

What was the New Order like?
I think the New Order was full of shit. There were a lot of things we should’ve been able to talk about that we couldn’t. For me, I was more concerned about freedom of assembly and expression. Back then it was so hard. Now, it’s pretty open. We're no longer afraid to talk about things that oppose the government.

VICE: What were you doing during the 90s?
Wednes Mandra: I was 6 in ‘98. I don’t remember much. I think I was just about to start Kindergarten. But I really don’t remember what it was like back then. But, apparently, my dad was an activist then. My dad was a student in ISI, one of the people who organized the protest at UIN.

What was social life like back in the 2000s?
The internet had just started when I was in elementary school. I used to live in Sanden, near the beach, when I was in elementary school. I started to get obsessed with internet in junior high. I couldn’t exactly compare those years with the period before that, because when I lived by the beach, I didn’t even know phones existed. I didn’t know what dating was. So I was so isolated from everything that only existed in the big cities. I was in the village.

What did young people do back then that was considered "bad"?
Jionan or french kiss, it was when I was in junior high. In high school, I used to get drunk, have sex. I knew someone who stabbed someone with a knife. Students would fight one another. When we walked home, sometimes students would stop us and ask, “Where do you go to school?”

What were the police like?
Well, they tried to mitigate the situation. Back then, social media wasn’t like it was today, so people or the police didn't know about students disputes until much later.

Right before Reformasi, the economy was really unstable. Do you think it's better today or back before the crisis?
I’ve always lived a simple life, but I don’t know if my lifestyle has something to do with the crisis. If yes, it means until I was in high school, my family was still very much affected by the crisis. Not much has changed. My family’s financial state is more stable these days. My mom is a civil servant, my dad’s an entertainer.

A lot of people say that it was better back during the New Order era.
I disagree. First, because I didn’t exactly live the era, but from the stories I heard, I think today is a better era to live in. Back then, we couldn’t speak up, people were silenced. People disappeared. It’s better now, we can express ourselves more freely.

VICE: What were you doing in the 1990s?
Rian Suwardi: My days were filled with going to school and hanging out with friends. I would be swimming in the river, paying with marbles, or running around at the cacao plantation.

Life was really calm back then. Friends only fought over losing a bike race or something like that. The village used to be a lot more green. There were lots of really tall trees and scary myths. That's why, as kids, we really saw our parents as our main protectors. Until high school, I never got involved in a political discussion. Nowadays, young people can get really worked-up about local elections even when they're not old enough to vote. I feel like kids today don't have time to play.

What did you know about Suharto?
I went to school at an Islamic boarding school. No teacher would tell me about the real Suharto. So I just thought he was a good guy, like Sukarno. I was very young when he was president, so I don't remember what life was like under him. But my family members told me that those who voted for any other party that wasn't Suharto's were interrogated. That's evil.

How would you define the New Order and Reformasi?
I think generally there isn't a lot of difference between the two. During the New Order, in terms of the economy, only the powerful few ruled Indonesia. Isn't that the same today? Corruption is still a problem. The only difference now is our access to knowledge. Back then, when you knew about an instance of corruption, you didn't say anything because reporting that could potentially harm you. Now you can report such a thing and be protected.

VICE: What were you doing in the late ‘90s?
Haswandy Andy Mas: I grew up in a kampung called Rappocini in Makassar. I was already in junior high school.

What was it like back then?
Back in the day, a lot of people had to drop out of school. School was expensive. My friends worked as construction workers. When my parents gave me my pocket money, I’d spend it hanging out. In 1992, there were already plenty clubs in Makassar. Some of my friends were regulars.

But, at the time, because we already started staying up late, we started fighting with other people. But after we fight, we would try to outrun the police. Some of us were arrested anyway and had to get our parents to bail us out. In the 1990s, we only beat up people. Then in the 2000s, people started killing each other. That really scared me.

What else? Were there a lot of drugs?
At the time, there was this drug called nipam. We used to get high and flirt with women. That’s about it.

What did you know about Suharto at the time?
I was in 4th grade in the late 1980s and I remember Suharto visiting Makassar for an event. I went there on the Damri (airport transport). I climbed up a wall and saw Suharto walk out of the chopper and wave at the crowd. I thought, wow, that's really cool. It’s really memorable.

How would you describe Suharto today?
In 1998, during Reformasi, I was there during those protests. It was fun. That made me feel like a real student. I learned a lot of things in school and realized that our system of government was flawed. And from these discussions and readings, I learned that Suharto was a dictator.

Was life better back then, or is it better todat?
It was more quiet in the 1990s. But we couldn’t express ourselves back then. The military was so in charge. Brilliant civilians were hard to find.

—VICE writers Hendri Abik (Aceh), Eko Rusdianto (Sulawesi), Titah AW, and Umar Wicaksono (Yogyakarta) all contributed to this article.