Jakarta Riots of May 1998
In Indonesia, the 1998 Asian economic crisis led to soaring inflation, plummeting currency, political violence, and the downfall of President Suharto (b. 1921). Unemployment rose to 20 million (11 percent).
The consequences were catastrophic. On 12 May, the turning point came. Security forces fatally shot six students of Trisakti University in Jakarta to bring the students under control. Crowds looted and burned the shops and residences of Chinese Indonesians, and Chinese-Indonesian women were targeted for systematic rape. There were reports of Chinese fleeing to Australia and Singapore. The mob violence resulted in over twelve hundred deaths. The Chinese were targeted by mobs because they were seen as the cause of all the problems. They dominated the corporate sector and retail trade. Indonesia had had a long history of anti-Chinese violence. The "anti-Chinese pogrom" of 1965 massacred 250,000 Chinese.
On 19 May, thousands of demonstrating students occupied the Assembly Building in Jakarta. About eighty thousand troops occupied Merdeka Square to prevent a large-scale demonstration. Meanwhile, Suharto was losing the support of Muslim leaders and his cabinet colleagues. On 21 May, he resigned.
The nation was aggrieved by the May events. The riots in Jakarta were the worst violence in Indonesia since 1965, when seven hundred thousand were killed over six months. The events of 1998 shattered the confidence of the Chinese-Indonesian community and sullied the image of Indonesia as a tolerant nation. The rule of Suharto, widely viewed as corrupt and authoritarian, was over.
New Order; Suharto
Further Reading
Emmerson, Donald K., ed. (1998) Indonesia beyond Suharto. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.
Schwarz, Adam, and Jonathan Paris, eds. (1999) The Politics of Post-Suharto. New York: Council on Foreign Relations Press.
This is the complete article, containing 277 words
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page).
