Indonesia's New Order Nostalgia Isn't Going Anywhere. Here's Why

I don't remember much about Gen. Suharto. But I do remember his smile. I was still a little kid during the twilight of Suharto's New Order regime, so I can't really say I directly experienced what life was like under his iron fist. Still, even a little kid knew who Suharto was, because his face was everywhere. He was on the back of the Rp 50,000 ($3.69 USD) note my parents gave me for Lebaran. He was always on the evening news. I would turn on the television at 7:30 pm and see Suharto fishing, or planting a tree, or inspecting a rice field—always with a smile on his face.

I also remember the fear of his fall. I was way too young to understand the politics of it all, but I remember the economic turmoil, how people were losing their jobs left and right. I remember my friends homes being looted by mobs of angry men. It was a scary time for a five-year-old girl.

So you can understand my confusion about why so many Indonesians these days are feeling all nostalgic about the New Order and military rule in general. What's going on? It's got to be more than those memes, the smiling Suharto asking, "What's up, weren't things better during my time?" stickers you still see affixed to the back of trucks across Indonesia, right?

Suharto's 32 years in power were a time of wild economic growth. But they were also a time of serious fear. Activists were jailed or just straight up vanished, presumably into a shallow graves somewhere. The media was cowed into submission. Human rights violations, like the extrajudicial killing of so-called criminals, went ignored.

And then there was the fact that Suharto's administration was one of the most-corrupt on Earth. During three decades in power, Suharto and his cronies stole so much money—an estimated $30 billion USD—that Transparency International once declared Suharto the most-corrupt ruler ever. The money still hasn't been returned. Instead, when he finally stepped down, Suharto left the country with $171 billion USD in debt. I don't get it. What's to miss?

Apparently, I'm the minority here. A recent poll by the Pew Research Center found that while 69 percent of Indonesians surveyed were satisfied with democracy, as a form of government, a whopping 68 percent of them were also pining for the days when the military ruled the nation.

This nostalgia for the New Order represents a failure of Indonesian to truly reform its political sphere in the aftermath of Suharto's tumultuous fall, explained Hendardi, the head of the SETARA Institute, an NGO that focuses on democracy and intolerance issues.

Here we are, Hendardi said, years after the end of the New Order and the House of Representatives, as well as countless key positions within the current government, are still occupied by men and women connected to Suharto's regime. It's no wonder a lot of people think a military regime can also be democratic, despite the overwhelming amount of evidence proving the contrary, he said.

"There is not a single piece of empirical evidence that shows that a military leader can become fully democratic," Hendardi told VICE. "In its core, a democracy needs to be led by a civilian. The military doesn't teach you democracy."

What about all these young people who say that things were better during Suharto's era? Just search #EnakJamanKu on Twitter and you'll find countless people who believe the country was in better shape during the New Order. Where are they getting these ideas from if they, same as me, were way too young to really know what was going on?

"It's illogical for young people to miss New Order since they didn't experience it in the first place," Hendardi said. "Those who do might have been influenced by others or just lacking reference. We need to realize that New Order created its own historical narrative, making themselves look better than they really were."

I called up a friend, Adam Prireza, 23, to see what he remembered about the New Order. We were both young during the Suharto years, and I just wanted to see if he was one of the people with warm fuzzy feelings about the time. Turns out Adam, like a lot of Millennials who were kids in the late 90s, isn't exactly a fan.

"All I remember during the 98 chaos was waiting for my mother to come home," Adam told me. "I kept looking out the windows and smelling my mom's clothes. Since then, I panic every time my mom comes home late."

A lot of young Indonesians lack context, Hendardi explained. Most Millennials and all of Generation Z were too young to feel what it's like to live under a repressive regime. So they're prone to romanticizing the entire era as a period of economic stability, cheap food, and political calm, he said.

But there's more to the nostalgia than just memories of the days when a bowl of bakso cost a lot less. The country made a huge step in 2014, choosing for the first time a president with no ties to the old power structure. President Joko Widodo is a civilian, a businessman famed nationwide for his humble demeanor, not his iron touch. Voters saw Jokowi as a "modest," "man of the people," who was "honest," Hendardi explained.

But his opponent Prabowo Subianto, who lost by 6.3 percent, was described with the opposite traits. He was seen as "bold," and "brave"—both ideals many Indonesians still associate with the military. Simply put, military men are masculine men, and they make the kind of leaders who aren't easily pushed around, according to the national consciousness.

So during times of turmoil, like when, say, a half-million people are protesting the middle of the capital, a lot of people look back on Suharto and just remember his firm grasp on the country—not all of the bad stuff that came with it.

"The survey shows that the fondness for military was more about its simplistic associated traits such as assertiveness," Hendardi said. "There's this narrative that a civilian can't lead, and can't be assertive. Is it a guarantee that a military man will be assertive regarding democracy principles? Not really."

It doesn't matter that our last president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, was a military man who was so known for his indecisiveness and reluctance to speak that it spawned hashtags. A lot of people still think all military men are stern, unfailing leaders.

The roots of this belief, according to Rafendi Djamin, the executive director of Human Rights Watch Group, is a lack of inspiring politicians.

"I assume the young generation still have faith in the government but on the other hand they're also sick of politicians," Rafendi told VICE. "They think about how under democracy, the officials are still corrupt."

What's it all mean? Should we be worried about the rise of the "pribumi" and "non-pribumi" talk currently rearing its head in the capital? Is the recent return of the red scare a sign of a renewed power play by powerful members of the military elite?

Rafendi, for one, isn't worried. The country has already opened the door to democracy and there's no turning back, he said. What the younger generations needs to remember whenever they are complaining about the mess we're in is that a lot of these issues have their roots in the New Order itself. So a return to a Suharto-style government wouldn't necessarily fix anything.

"In a process of change, there's no turning back," Rafendi said. "Now that Indonesia has come this far, it'd be difficult to go back to military-heavy state. The change might stagnate, or even regress a bit, but it will never completely return to its previous state. That's what happens after reformasi."

So maybe all this nostalgia serves two purposes. For the New Order fan boys, it's a way to complain about how messed up things have become. And for the rest of us it's a reminder of how far we've all come. I, for one, am fine with that.