The Fall Of Suharto And Reformasi

Date

1998

Category

Politics & governance

Region

Southeast Asia (Indonesia)

Era

Contemporary

Significance

President Suharto resigned on 21 May 1998, ending 32 years of authoritarian rule in Indonesia and opening the democratic era known as Reformasi.

His "New Order" regime, which had come to power amid mass killings in the mid-1960s, crumbled when the Asian financial crisis wiped out the rupiah, sent prices soaring, and threw millions out of work. Student protesters occupied Parliament demanding his removal, and after security forces shot dead demonstrators at Trisakti University, Jakarta erupted in riots that killed over a thousand people and targeted the ethnic Chinese minority in scenes of horrifying violence. Abandoned by his own ministers and international backers, the 76-year-old strongman announced his resignation on live television, handing power to his vice-president. Suharto's fall removed one of Asia's longest-ruling dictators and unleashed a wave of democratisation, press freedom, and decentralisation across the world's fourth most populous nation and largest Muslim-majority country. It also cleared the way for East Timor's independence and a fraught, ongoing reckoning with the corruption and human-rights abuses of the New Order years.

Empires active in 1998

• Portuguese Empire
  1415 CE – 1999 CE

Related politics & governance events

• Indonesia's Mass Killings And The Rise Of Suharto
  1965–1966
• The end of apartheid and Nelson Mandela's election in South Africa
  27 April 1994 (election); 10 May 1994 (inauguration)
• Dissolution of the Soviet Union
  August–December 1991
• German reunification
  3 October 1990
• Fall of the Berlin Wall
  9 November 1989
• Revolutions of 1989 across Eastern Europe
  1989 (Autumn of Nations)

Also relevant

• Hugo Chávez's election launches Latin America's 'Pink Tide'
  6 December 1998 (Chávez elected)
• The handover of Hong Kong to China
  1 July 1997

Further reading

A History of Southeast Asia: Critical Crossroads

The wider story

A History of Southeast Asia: Critical Crossroads

Anthony Reid

Authoritative yet readable history of the whole region, mainland and maritime.

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